Doctors are worried a new Government campaign to test for hepatitis C will put more pressure on an already overloaded health care system.
They say GP funding needs to be urgently reviewed, with some patients already having to wait up to a month to be seen by their doctor.
The Government’s push last week came off the back of new funding being available for hepatitis C treatment.
It’s thought about 50,000 people here have the chronic liver infection, yet half don’t know it.
But more diagnoses has doctors worried. The president of the College of General Practitioners, Dr Samantha Murton says it could mean more patients.
"Traditionally those people have been going into a hospital setting and now the service is provided in primary care, where it should be provided - but the funding does not shift with that," she says.
The NZ Medical Association chair, Dr Kate Baddock, says it’s the patients that miss out.
"[They] miss out because they cannot be adequately cared for in the community, they miss out because they actually can't get to the hospital to have an alternative, or they actually just throw their hands up in frustration and do nothing and they miss out on a cure of hep C," she says.
1 NEWS has spoken to one Christchurch practice which is already being forced to refer hepatitis C patients to the hospital, where GPs say waiting times there can be up to four months.
But the Health Minister, David Clark, insists doctors are well-resourced.
"GPs are people who are working in the community that we want to be well-supported and well-funded - and most GPs say to me that they are," he says.
Though the College of General Practitioners and the NZ Medical Association disagree, with Dr Kate Baddock warning that general practice will fall over without the Government intervening.
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