A Far North health provider has made the “very difficult decision” to close its after-hours services temporarily due to ongoing staff shortages.

There will be no doctor available on-site at Rawene Hospital after hours from 5pm to 8am Monday to Sunday, starting next week.

Hauora Hokianga announced the planned closure with “great reluctance” on Tuesday morning in a Facebook post by chief executive Margareth Broodkoorn.

“Over the past couple of years, Hauora Hokianga has been challenged with the recruitment of our health workforce and more recently is facing critical medical and nursing workforce issues which are impacting our ability to provide services.

“At this time, this is particularly a concern within the ward and after-hours services,” said Broodkoorn.

The health provider said it is a temporary measure as it actively continues to recruit new staff.

“I am truly sorry that it has come to this, a decision that has not been made lightly without seeking assistance from others and exploring multiple options,” said Broodkoorn.

Rawene-based Hokianga Health serves a large, high-needs area covering all of South and North Hokianga, from Waimamaku to Mangamuka.

The announcement “immediately became a concern for the parents that live in the Hokianga community,” according to local mother and Rawene Playcentre treasurer Ginni Post.

“We basically all jumped online and it was like oh my goodness, have you seen this news?

“It did spark an undertone of panic if we needed to take our sick child to the hospital after hours,” said Post.

Hokianga residents will now have to share after-hours care with those on the east coast of the Far North at Bay of Islands Hospital, 66km away.

“Jumping in the car and driving an hour to Kawakawa, just would add an extra level of stress on a parent that we just don’t need when you have a sick child.”

Post said parents at the Playcentre have used after hours on a number of occasions, so its a concern the service is being removed even if it’s temporary.

“We are I guess a bit more on high alert in terms of monitoring our kids and making sure that if something is off with our kids, we get them into the hospital earlier.”

Staff shortages aren’t a new issue for the hospital according to ex-Hokianga health chief executive Dr John Wigglesworth.

“I was CEO for 25 years and it was always a challenge during my time.”

Wigglesworth wants to see a long-term solution to the shortage of medical staff with the knowledge and desire to work in rural areas.

“We really need to focus in New Zealand on training rural GPs,” said Wigglesworth.

Wigglesworth said the health provider always took on as many trainees as it could in order to give some medical students rural experience before they graduate.

Hauora Hokianga has several job vacancies listed on its website, including for rural medical GPs, rural registrars, registered nurses, a nurse practitioner and a health care assistant.

“It’s a blind spot to the needs of rural communities,” said Wigglesworth.

In the meantime, Kaitaia Hospital and Bay of Islands Hospital are now the only hospitals offering after-hours medical services in the Far North.

The closure is another blow to the dwindling list of Far North after-hours medical help.

The Whangaroa Health Services Trust, which also offers free GP visits in a high-needs area, ended its after-hours service at the former Kāeo Hospital in 2015 due to a shortage of doctors.

Patients in the area who need to see a GP after hours, but aren’t sick enough to need an ambulance, have had to make a 110km round trip to Bay of Islands Hospital in Kawakawa.

The after-hours GP service in Kerikeri was scrapped several years earlier, though a few practices in Kerikeri and Kaikohe still offer Saturday morning clinics.

At other times residents of those towns also have to drive to Kawakawa to see a GP for after-hours medical care.

An 1800-signature petition asking the Government and the Northland District Health Board to re-establish after-hours doctor services in Kerikeri was rejected in 2016.

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