The 12-hour daily service provided by Balclutha doctors will continue, for now at least, despite the town's main general practice admitting it is struggling to keep staff.
Balclutha General Practitioners Ltd (BGPL), a subsidiary of Balclutha's hospital, Clutha Health First (CHF), will lose three doctors over the coming weeks, and although it expects to make two new appointments in the next four months, has warned patients they may struggle to get appointments at times.
It introduced a new system more than 18 months ago to provide daily patient care between 9am and 9pm while medical staff at the adjacent hospital would cover the 12 hours during the night and early morning if needed.
But despite the pressure, CHF manager Ray Anton said there were no plans to review that service, in the short term.
"Instead, what we are working on feverishly is recruitment [of doctors]. That is our number one effort and we have got people at the end of the horizon."
The company would prefer to let some new doctors settle in before it considers how the after-hours service will continue.
"We would rather patch it [the service] and wait for the new people to arrive before we have a look at things."
The model, providing 12-hour care seven days a week, had been warmly accepted by the community and seemed to work well, and there was no good reason to change.
But he acknowledged providing any after-hours service, especially in a rural area, was difficult.
