A pilot scheme to deliver healthcare closer to home for six rural communities, including Tūrangi and Te Kūiti, has been completed, marking what Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey announced on Tuesday (February 3) would be the first phase of strengthening urgent and after-hours care across other rural locations.
The scheme’s findings should be good news for the towns that were in the pilot but others around the country as well for which geography has meant barriers to accessing afterhours health care, Doocey told LakeFM’s Jesse Archer.
The government was committed to rolling out after hours health care to 98 per cent of Kiwis. “And what that means is we want everyone to be able to drive within one hour for face-to-face consultation after hours.”
Other locations in the scheme were Golden Bay, Twizel, Coromandel and Great Barrier Island and its findings meant in towns like Tūrangi there would in future be a better chance of seeing a general practitioner after hours.
“You call the health line, they start to assess you, you might be well enough for them to say, look, on Monday, if it's a Saturday night, on Monday morning, we'll book you into your local GP. When that opens up, you'll be okay to see them.
“Or they might say, because of your acuity and severity… look, we're going to have to send the paramedic to take you to the hospital. But there's that middle group who aren't well enough to wait till Monday but aren't sick enough to actually need to go straight to the hospital. And that middle group, we want to provide after hours health care too, to ensure that they get timely access to support.”
That support could include faster access to blood testing and scans, but different communities were at different starting points for resources, he said.
“We want to work with local health professionals. It's not a top-down government steps in and says we know best. We want to back our local health professionals and say, what can we do to support you to make sure we get a consistent standard of afterhours health care across the country?
“So, it's not only being able to go in and see someone after hours in a face-to-face consultation, but also what services do they provide?”
The aim of the pilot was to help shape the design of rural health services for up to 70 locations.
“People in rural areas can often travel long distances for care and rely on small teams supporting large regions,” said Doocey.
“Already, the first phase shows the difference locally led approaches can make, with faster care, better access to treatment, and stronger links between rural health services.”
Across the six sites, several improvements had been implemented, including:
- Point-of-care blood testing is available at all locations, allowing clinicians to run key tests immediately without waiting for samples to be transported or sending people to hospital.
- Point-of-care ultrasound has been introduced across all sites, with 16 rural clinicians trained to use the equipment, supporting faster decision-making and reducing hospital transfers.
- Improved access to after-hours medicines, with Tūrangi and Twizel now providing on-call pharmacy services through telehealth and local pharmacists.
- Expanded ambulance support, including 24/7 coverage in Twizel over the holiday period, with work underway with Hato Hone St John on long-term options for the Mackenzie District.
- Integrated rural urgent care workforce models, with Extended Care Paramedics now working within local teams in Golden Bay and Great Barrier Island, strengthening urgent care capacity and easing pressure on small practices.
The Associate Health Minister said this year an additional 30 rural locations would have their services strengthened.
“This will include expanding point-of-care testing and ultrasound, improving access to after-hours medicines, and scaling integrated paramedic support,” he said.
“The results from the first six sites show what’s possible when rural providers are supported to design solutions that work for their communities. The momentum from this first phase will help strengthen urgent and after-hours care for years to come.”
In a release on the scheme he said it built on work underway to strengthen the rural health workforce, including rural training hubs and the new medical school at the University of Waikato.
Budget 2025 set aside $164 million for improving urgent and after-hours care nationwide – which Doocey said the government was committed to completing by the end of 2027.
