Doctor shortage cuts weekend hours

Silverdale Medical Centre has reduced its weekend urgent care hours from July 1 due to a shortage of doctors.

New urgent care hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, and weekends and public holidays, 9am to 5pm.

Millwater Medical will also temporarily close from July 24 until September 28. No services will operate there during this time.

Silverdale Medical CEO Ranyani Perer said the clinic is “very disappointed to be in this situation” and is “doing everything they can to recruit nationally and internationally” to address the shortage.

“With 45 per cent of the primary care doctors in NZ retiring within a decade, we will see increasing shortages of available care,” she said.

“Younger doctors work far fewer hours per week, and increasingly are unwilling to give up their personal time with loved ones to work unsociable hours.”

She said the situation is not unique to New Zealand. “As baby boomers are ageing and retiring, their need for care is escalating – at the same time their cohort is leaving the profession.”

“We don’t want to burn out the few doctors remaining on the team and lose more,” she said.

The centre is an Immigration New Zealand-accredited employer and is hoping to recruit doctors trained in the UK to the Hibiscus Coast.