Category: Practice

Getting Help for Winter Illness

Busy times … we know you may be experiencing phone queues and long waits for call backs at the moment, with winter illnesses causing very high demand.  Please bear with us.

Before calling it may be useful to check out the Healthify He Puna Website for advice on managing common winter infections. Find out how to take care of yourself and whānau at home, what to watch out for and when to seek medical advice.  Go to https://healthify.nz/health-a-z/w/winter-infections/

We know you want support from your local health care team and are working hard to see as many people as possible. Unfortunately, from time to time and especially early in the week our Triage Clinics get fully booked. Don’t worry, our nurses are usually still able to offer advice by phone and there are a range of other options for urgent advice and consultation:

1. Urgent Care Franklin, 12 Glasgow Rd, Pukekohe, Open daily 8am to 8pm, for all urgent care needs – 09 2386610
2. KAORA Telecare, Available 5pm – 8am weekdays and 24 hours weekends and holidays for telephone and video consults (Children FREE, CSC rates offered) https://kaora.co.nz/app/
3. Healthline FREE Any Day or Time 0800 611 116

Remember in a Medical Emergency don’t hesitate to dial 111.

If you need a routine appointment, please try and book well in advance.

Fee Changes from 1 Jul 24

In the 2 years since we last raised our fees for medical appointments costs have risen significantly and after careful review, new fees will apply from 1 Jul 24.

Car Clinic and Indoor Triage   We are not an Accident and Medical Facility but see many urgent presentations a day.  This requires additional space, telephone triage and nurse assessment and treatment, in addition to the medical consultation, so is more costly than a standard GP appointment.  Therefore, from 1 Jul 24 our fees for urgent non-ACC appointments via our Car Clinic and Triage services will be:

Given these increases, we will reduce our Saturday and Public Holiday surcharge from $15.00 to $5.00.

Standard GP Consult Fees will be increased by a lesser amount as follows: 

We aim to keep fees to a minimum while offering fair pay to staff and ensuring our services are sustainable.

Our fees for most registered patients are lower than with other providers locally including urgent care.

If you have difficulty paying for your appointment, please let us know. One option is to set up a small regular automatic payment to spread the cost.

Nurse Consult Fee Increases

From 1 Apr 24, regular Nurse Consult Fees will be as follows:

Please note:
• Additional fees may be chargeable for certain procedures and after-hours.
• The fees increase reflects rising costs of providing the services.
• We last increased nurse fees in 2011.
• Our nurses are highly skilled and offer a wide range of services.

As always, we do not wish cost to be a barrier. If you have difficulty paying for your appointment, please let us know.