Medical centre caters for thousands of new patients

By the time the new Waimea Medical gets into full swing, it will be able to take on 6,000 new patients to help alleviate the pressure of a growing population around Richmond that needs more general practitioners (GPs).

The new medical centre opposite Waimea College opened quietly in December and two of its five GP co-owners, Rashad Zafarulla and Kirsty Stewart, say it already has 1,500 new patients enrolled, with more doctors still to come in the next couple of years.

Until December, Richmond had just three GP practices compared with multiple practices in Nelson, yet Kirsty says Richmond and nearby communities is the fastest-growing area. She says there was limited ability to enrol in Richmond practices at the time, so people coming into the region had little choice when seeking a GP.

Getting an appointment in Richmond could mean a long wait and one local woman who emailed Waimea Weekly recently said she had a five-week wait for her appointment.

So, when an opportunity arose for the Stoke Medical business to set up a Richmond medical centre in the new Nelson Orthodontic building, it was timely.

“It’s supplying that GP service that is so desperately needed for the area,” Rashad says. “It’s a growing region.”

Three new GPs have recently joined the practice, taking the total between the two medical centres to 13, with another two joining them later in the year. Many of the GPs move between the Stoke and Richmond centres and Kirsty says more GPs can be sought down the track as the Richmond centre has consulting space to accommodate them.

“We were reaching capacity with the number of rooms in Stoke and had about 11,000 patients. This allows us to take on another 6,000 patients.”

That should cater for the region right now and Rashad says the business will try and adapt to the community’s needs in the future.

GPs are in short supply around the country, but Kirsty says the Nelson Tasman region usually doesn’t have the same struggle attracting them.

“We’re lucky in Nelson. It’s still constrained, but Nelson is a popular place and we’re big on training. We’ve always got registrars training with us, and we’ve been lucky they have wanted to return. We get to know them, and they get to know us. It’s the same with training nurses.”

Taking the pressure off the GP shortage in the area doesn’t mean patients will always be able to get an appointment quickly, as Kirsty says different times of the year put pressure on a medical practice.

Ideally, she says patients will be able to see a GP within a reasonable time frame though. and the practice also has a telephone triage service that helps.

The centre has a fully-operational theatre for minor surgery and will have nursing services as well.