Rural communities around New Zealand will soon have access to overnight GP appointments as Te Whatu Ora rolls a new telehealth primary care service.

Ka Ora – the provider contracted to carry out the work – has already partnered with 20 general practices but says it’s working hard to on-board as many as possible before the holiday season.

The initiative is specifically aimed at supporting rural health staff and improving access for patients living rurally, but it’s likely to create benefits for the rest of the health system, too.

However, one rural health leader said telehealth won’t be the silver bullet to fix New Zealand’s rural health workforce shortages.

Ka Ora Telecare is a partnership between three well-established telehealth providers: Reach Aotearoa, Practice Plus and Emergency Consult.

General manager Jess White said it was important for practices to know that they weren’t there to take patients, but to support practices by creating extra capacity.

Her team were working hard to create trust with GPs and help them understand their role, she said, adding that besides overnight support, Ka Ora could also take on overflow patients during usual hours and help unenrolled or casual patients.

Many Ka Ora staff work day jobs within the public system and do top-up shifts with the service, which means workforce resources can be distributed or shared across the country.

White explained that patients could either phone an 0800 number or their GP – in which case the call would be forwarded to the service.

They would be greeted by a kaiāwhina to gather personal information, like where they were from, before being triaged by a nurse, who would decide if a video or telephone consultation was necessary, she said.

The service is subsidised by Te Whatu Ora and nurse consultations are free, but a co-payment will be charged for GP consultations.

Between 10pm and 8am, when patient acuity is usually higher, patients will be put straight through to the nurse.

Ka Ora will be connected to practice systems to access patient records, so the experience should be like speaking to another doctor from your practice.

South Taranaki Rural Health General Practice GP Dr Chris Heatherton said the initiative could potentially make a “huge difference” for rural doctors.

Many practices have had to close their books because they simply don’t have the staff to take on new patients.

Heatherton’s practice had started the onboarding process.

He anticipated Ka Ora would be especially beneficial for patients whose ailments were not serious enough to warrant a trip to the emergency department, but needed advice or reassurance outside of practice hours.

Most ED physicians said a lot of the work they do after hours could be handled in primary care, Heatherton said.

GPs didn’t always have relationships with ED doctors, but they would be able to build them with Ka Ora doctors, which would give patients continuity of care, he said.

Originally from the United States, Heatherton believed this was an innovative approach to supporting rural communities that he hadn’t seen before.

“It should be recognised for what it is, which is quite ambitious.”

Gore Health chief executive Karl Metzler welcomed the initiative but said its success would come down to access to a patient’s records.

“We’ve used virtual access to doctors over the years with varying success,” he said, adding that the service would be particularly welcomed in remote, isolated practices.

However, connectivity in these areas could be a barrier, Metzler said, adding that this was even a problem in parts of Eastern Southland where internet networks were antiquated.

He believed that serious work was needed to strengthen New Zealand’s health workforce.

“All too often we try to solve a workforce crisis with technology,” he said, “We need to be more strategic.”

Pointing to the “enormous pressure” on primary care, Metzler said: “Anything that can be part of a solution and enable better access is a good thing.”

Te Whatu Ora’s national clinical director of primary and community care Dr Sarah Clarke acknowledged the workforce shortages around the country and globally.

“Any capacity we can put in to support people living rurally, and the rural workforce is exciting.”

Access to after-hour care for rural communities was variable across the motu, Clarke said, and “part of the value of Te Whatu Ora is understanding the variations and what’s planned and reasonable and what’s consequential.”

This was an exciting first step towards creating equitable access to healthcare for rural people, she said.