Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Upper Hutt residents say they are dealing with a "stressful" lack of after-hours and urgent care health service. File photo.
Upper Hutt residents say they are dealing with a "stressful" lack of after-hours and urgent care health services, ending up in emergency departments to get basic treatments like antibiotics and asthma inhalers.
Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal Upper Hutt is the only large urban area in the country without a hospital or urgent care and after-hours service.
The new mayor is re-upping her push to get that changed - and calling for Health NZ to do a health needs assessment for the city.
Emma said her toddler has been to the Lower Hutt emergency department five times in the past six months, due to the lack of an urgent care service and the squeeze on GPs.
The Upper Hutt resident said her one-year-old contracted pneumonia earlier this year, and was unwell with respiratory issues leading up to that.
Emma said no medical centres in the city can offer short-notice appointments, with at least a month's wait.
"I'd be explaining to them this is starting to become urgent, he's quite unwell, we really need to see a GP, and they'd say no, you're just going to have to take him to the after-hours in Lower Hutt or ED, and that just puts pressure on them, they're often stretched as well."
There's no urgent care or after-hours care in Upper Hutt, which has a population of 47,500.
A service which was operating out of Upper Hutt Health Centre closed in 2022, after Silverstream Medical Centre pulled out of the after-hours group.
The closest is Lower Hutt After Hours Medical Centre, which is currently open limited hours between 5.30pm and 10pm on weekdays, and 8am and 10pm on weekends.
Emma said sometimes they need help urgently - at times in the middle of the day - and reaching Lower Hutt can take half an hour.
"Often if my son's become unwell overnight, or during the middle of the day with breathing issues, he deteriorates quite quickly, so we need to get him seen quickly, and we're having to end up in ED - and it's just for things that I feel could be dealt with by a General Practitioner in the community."
She said she also ended up needing hospital care for herself, when an appointment she booked a month in advance was cancelled and the earliest next appointment was in another month.
Upper Hutt resident Tori McRae said she regularly needs to go to Lower Hutt's after-hours with her two-year-old, but it's often packed.
She said she's waited up to six hours at the Lower Hutt emergency department before.
"There's heaps of young families [in Upper Hutt] - this is the demographic that needs after-hours, I think.
"You have kids getting injured at school sports or weekends sports, toddlers jumping off a playground and spraining an ankle like mine did, and it is appalling that we don't have that care available."
'Massive GP shortage' a problem - medical centre manager
Health NZ revealed in an OIA that Upper Hutt is the only "large urban area" in the country where there is no hospital or after-hours and urgent care.
It said aside from Upper Hutt, similarly-sized cities including Invercargill, Timaru and Lower Hutt had limited access to after-hours care.
"In these locations, service hours may be limited to evenings or weekends only, and in some cases, patients may rely on emergency departments or general practice on-call arrangements for care outside regular hours."
Lower Hutt After Hours Medical Centre General Manager Mark O'Connor said the Hutt region has been historically "under-served" for health services.
He said the after-hours have been busy, due to its limited hours.
"We see 25,000 people a year through here, and we support the practices in the Hutt who cannot see some of their patients."
He said from 1 December, Lower Hutt Medical Centre will become a full urgent care, open every day of the year between 8am and 10pm.
O'Connor said he didn't think a separate Upper Hutt service was viable, given the lack of GPs.
"There is a massive shortage of GPs, whether they be urgent or general practice, in New Zealand, and to resource an urgent care practice in Upper Hutt would be almost impossible."
Upper Hutt mayor Peri Zee said that's not safe.
She said a previously operating Saturday after-hours service helped her son when he had an epileptic seizure in 2020, and the closest ambulance was in Wellington city.
"I've had so many messages from parents in situations like mine, sometimes quite serious ones, and also just kids who are sick over and over again and really need to be seen.
"We really desperately need local services, and that's not an unreasonable expectation."
Zee is calling for Health NZ to do a Health Needs Assessment for the growing city.
She also wants the agency to change its commissioning requirements so that every city in the country must have an urgent care and after-hours service.
Health NZ's regional director of planning, funding & outcomes central, Geoff Gwyn, said the agency "acknowledges the concerns raised by Upper Hutt residents about the lack of urgent care and after-hours services".
Gwyn said that, along with the expanded services being offered at Lower Hutt Medical Centre, a range of other initiatives are in place in Upper Hutt.
"These include telehealth and online GP care, and a nurse-led service at Queen Street Pharmacy.
"These services are available evenings and weekends to triage, treat, or refer people to appropriate care - this includes virtual consultations, which are free for children under 14 years."
He said current national commissioning requirements for after-hours services do not specify that each city must have a standalone after-hours facility.
"Our focus is to ensure that people can access urgent care within reasonable travel times or through virtual or pharmacy-based services."
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