The PHO sought about $30,000 funding from Southern District Health Board to review after-hours care in Otago and Southland, with a particular focus on rural areas.
"It's a proactive and positive look into the future about how we have to configure after-hours services for sustainability in the future."
Some practices were on a "knife-edge", with high rates of turnover in areas that once enjoyed stable staffing.
The situation was exacerbated by an ageing health workforce, and competition from overseas for workers.
"Onerous" after-hours responsibilities affected people's working life (through tiredness during the day), as well as their personal life.
"They don't have a life, basically."
A consultant might be hired to guide the review, which would have strong input from GPs.
The review would deal with "differences of opinion" affecting services, such as a lack of co-operation between Cromwell GP practices. Such issues often boiled down to people being too busy to talk to each other, although there were often "different views of the world" at play too. Funding could pay locums to staff-remote areas so GPs could attend parts of the review.
A review plan was being worked through with Southern DHB.
The big issue in urban areas was patients attending hospital emergency departments "inappropriately". The main reason for this was the cost of after-hours care. The PHO received complaints about consultation costs, which sometimes topped $100. The PHO could not regulate what providers charged because the "market" determined that. However, it would try to minimise "cost barriers" for patients.
Southern DHB community and public health committee chairman Dr Malcolm Macpherson said the review was overdue because long hours made it hard to recruit rural GPs, and the situation would get worse.
"The next generation of rural GPs will be less inclined to work unsocial hours and sacrifice family life when their big-city colleagues have the luxury of an ED and third-party after-hours care. Sustainable rural general practice will demand new models." Dr Macpherson wanted to see more emphasis on after-hours, on-call, and emergency medicine in rural areas "to even up levels and standards of service for all Southerners".
