Wednesday Sutherland calls for more GP Access After Hours funding after spending 7 hours in Calvary Mater emergency department

It comes as staff from the region's hospitals confirmed there had been a noticeable rise in the number of people seeking help for minor ailments since the closure of the Calvary Mater's clinic and the reduction in the service's hours elsewhere.

Wednesday Sutherland has told the Newcastle Herald a chronic spinal condition that surfaced about six months ago had prompted her to seek the advice and support of GP Access four times in the past year.

But when she was unable to get an appointment with the service at any of its clinics recently, she had no other option but to attend the emergency department (ED) instead.

"My back had kind of been fine for a while, and then I had this very sudden flare up," she said. "I had a doctor's appointment booked, but not for two days later, and it came on so suddenly at about 7pm on a Monday. I was in a lot of pain. I knew I just needed to see a doctor to get a script. I waited half an hour on the phone to get triaged by GP Access, and then I was told there were no available appointments in the Hunter whatsoever, and that due to my pain levels, I should go to the ED."

She was triaged at the ED after about an hour.

"It took about three hours to get any pain relief," she said. "I laid on a bench seat crying with pain. I didn't get out of there until after 1.30am. It just seemed really unnecessary."

She felt if the GP Access clinic was still open at the Calvary Mater, and the hours hadn't been reduced at the others, it could have eased the burden on the ED.

"There were people in there with possibly broken bones waiting for the same amount of time that I was," she said. "I was in a lot of pain, but previously, when I had called GP Access that whole scenario would be over and done within an hour. I'd have an appointment really quickly at the Mater clinic, which is close to where I live, wait 10 minutes max to see the doctor, and then be out of there in about half an hour."

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Ms Sutherland said the staff at the hospital were kind, apologetic, and hardworking.

"This is no reflection on them," she said. "They were just under so much pressure. It was pretty grim. One woman who was in a wheelchair was in a lot of pain too, and couldn't get up to ask the staff for some pain relief. But she wasn't the only person in there sobbing."

Ms Sutherland would like to see funding restored to the after hours GP service.

While after hours GP services are funded by the federal government, up until recently the state also contributed about $560,000 a year to the service. That funding dropped to about $100,000 last year before being completely withdrawn at the end of 2021.

"It was just really confronting, and it makes me worry about the health system," she said. "It is already obviously over-stretched. It takes me three weeks to get an appointment with my GP. She had to close her books to new patients because her regular patients were waiting up to a month to get an appointment. If they reduce the funding further it will absolutely get worse. If it's already like this now... what are people going to do? Especially people who can't access bulk billed services at the best of times.

"They need to restore, at the very least, the former funding levels to GP Access to take some of the load off the ED."

Rachel Hughes, the John Hunter Hospital branch secretary of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, said management had claimed there had not been a rise in presentations but staff on the ground disagreed.

"Our members have reported a big increase in people presenting with more minor issues that could be managed by a GP," she said. "And it's either because they haven't been able to get an after hours appointment, they haven't been able to get a general appointment with their GP, or they can't afford it because it is harder to find bulk billing GPs now.

"It makes it really difficult, especially with the cuts to GP Access, because it puts even more pressure on the ED. But people have nowhere else to turn. If there are any more cuts to GP Access, it is going to get worse, and it is going to get worse for people who actually need to be in the ED because they are going to be delayed even further. It's scary. It's really scary."

Some patients left before being seen.

"The nurses I've spoken to who work in ED are saying they are waiting for someone to die," she said. "Some of them feel their registration is on the line because they are responsible for those patients in the waiting room, which is overloaded with people with issues that could be managed by a GP - and even a pharmacist in some cases - but people don't know what is concerning and what isn't. That's why they are there."

Federal member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon said these stories were a "very clear demonstration" of the impact of the funding cuts to GP Access.

"This was a half a million dollar cut that has triggered all of this pain and trauma for people in the community," she said. "Half a million dollars - to the Commonwealth health budget - is less than a drop in the ocean. Yet we are still arguing about it.

"Labor's commitment to restore the service's full operations as a matter of priority is an attempt to ensure that we are making use of primary health care before people are referred into that tertiary public hospital system where the huge expenses for treating people lay. If we don't strengthen that public health system it has - as we are now seeing - deep consequences."

A spokesperson for the Minister for Health and Aged Care said the government spends about $700 million on access to after hours GP services through higher rebates, incentives to GP practices to stay open later, and funding to Primary Health Networks (PHNs).

"Out of the 31 PHNs nationally, the Hunter New England and Central Cost PHN receives the most funding through the PHN After Hours Program," he said. "In 2021-22 the PHN received $5.5 million through the PHN After Hours Program - $1.7 million more than the amount calculated through the program's funding formula. This figure has been consistent since 2019-20."

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