With funding to a local health organisation set to be cut, patients in some of the poorest parts of Lower Hutt will pay more for doctors' visits.
The move has sparked fears that low-income patients may stop going to their GPs, get sicker and end up in hospital.
The Hutt-based Piki te Ora Primary Health Organisation will have $95,000 cut from its budget from July 1 – money used to subsidise the cost of healthcare for people unable to afford doctors' visits.
Piki te Ora PHO co-ordinator Muriel Tunoho said. the cuts, by Hutt Valley District Health Board, would mean fee increases, staffing cuts, and ultimately cuts to services. Higher fees would stop sick people going to the doctor, she said. "They will stay at home and get sicker, and end up in hospital anyway.
"Squeezing money out of the wafer-thin budget of a high-performing PHO if the number of hospital admissions increases, will not save any money," she said.
"While our funding has been reduced by almost $300,000 over the last financial year we are particularly concerned about the removal of the $95,000 that we have previously received for targeted healthcare for those people who are least able to afford ... GP visits."
Michael Hundleby, DHB acting chief executive said the $95,000 funding was introduced before the current system, which built in extra funding for PHOs in low-decile areas. "So we have effectively removed an anomaly”
Piki te Ora has 12,697 patients, of whom 9643 are considered to be in the high-needs category – Maori, Pacific Island or people living in poor areas.
The Organisation has arranged a public meeting about the funding cuts at the Hutt Union and Community Health Service in Pomare.
Free visits for patients aged 6-18 could be replaced by a $15 fee. The current $10 fee for 19 to 64-year-olds may also rise to $15. Visits for under-sixes would remain free.
The PHO has doctors' clinics in Wainuiomata, Petone and Pomare. It also runs the Pacific Health Service clinic in Naenae and another clinic at the Kokiri Marae in Seaview.
.Health Minister Tony Ryall said the Government gave the Hutt Valley board an extra $11 million this year. "The PHO and HVDHB have to work this out between them."
Mr Hundleby said that the funding increase was not as large as in previous years, "because of the change in the world economy and, as a consequence, we have had to look for in the region of $10m in efficiencies to meet our targeted position for the coming financial year."
Labour's Chris Hipkins, MP for Rimutaka, said he was "really concerned" about the proposed cut.
They're in one of the poorest communities in the Hutt Valley. I know that they [the DHB] have to cut it from somewhere but I think it's a real shame that they're taking the funding from people at the very bottom of the spectrum who are least able to find the extra money."
One person who could well be affected is a multiple sclerosis sufferer who will think twice before visiting her doctor if fees rise. "I will probably sit at home and get sicker and sicker," Duilia Rendall said.
The 63-year-old pays $10 now to see her doctor at the Petone Union Health Service clinic in Jackson St. That fee could rise to $15 if $95,000 is cut from the Hutt-based Piki te Ora Primary Health Organisation's budget.
Ms Rendall, who also has rheumatism, visits the clinic up to four times a month. "They take a holistic approach, they really look after the whole of me."
She said she had little cash to spare from her invalid's benefit of $242.63 a week, and doubted she would be able to spare an extra $20 a month. "It's not only me, there are a lot of low-income earners here."
Ms Rendall is on the governance board of the Hutt Union and Community Health Service. "We have just been encouraging these people to make a habit of seeking health services and now they are going to put all these barriers in the way.
"The end result will be people will be going to hospital by ambulance when they are very, very ill."
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