The Central Otago After Hours (COAH) board has highlighted its concerns in relation to the current after hours service and its lack of future viability.
The COAH board sent a list of its concerns to the Wellsouth Primary Health Organisation today.
The board said its concerns were that there was a shortage of GPs that could contribute to the 14-hour after hours roster and it was not efficient to have a GP rostered on when there was only a small number of patients accessing the service, "especially during the winter months".
The board was also concerned about inequalities between its service which covered the hours from 6pm to 8am and other services with a hospital available which covered a period from 8-10pm, it said.
A meeting of key stakeholders which included representation from the Board of Central Otago After Hours (COAH), Dunstan Hospital (COHSL), WellSouth and Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan was held on the June 19.
Outcomes from this meeting included an agreement that COAH and COHSL would work towards a new cooperative model to be based at Dunstan Hospital which would have to be agreed to by COAH, COHSL and WellSouth and the present COAH service would continue to operate as is until a new agreed-upon model is up and running.
