The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) says urgent government financial support is needed for doctors whose patient fees have rapidly dried up during the lockdown.
GPs from across the country have reported a drop in patient numbers, and RNZCGP Medical Director Dr Bryan Betty says many are now facing the prospect of having to lay off doctors and nurses unless something is done.
Speaking this morning to TVNZ 1's Breakfast, Dr Betty said reports were coming in from practices around the country that they are struggling.
"With the move to virtualisation that happened about a week ago, a lot of practices have dropped in terms of throughput - not only that, doing virtual consults, the cashflow that practices are very reliant on isn't actually happening at this point," he said.
Doctors have stepped up during the coronavirus crisis, he said, and now the government needs to also step up to help them stay afloat.
"General practices are the absolute front line for what's going on," Dr Betty said.
"The way our system is structured, GPs are very, very reliant on that co-payment - the margins are very, very thin for delivering service.
"Often we will not pursue a co-payment because the patients can't pay - but this situation has just become markedly worse - what co-payment we were getting has just disappeared.
"Not one general practitioner has not stepped up to the mark here - the Government does need to step up to the mark at this point."
A meeting had taken place at the weekend between GP leaders, the Ministry of Health and Government on the issue, Dr Betty said, and the RNZCGP is hoping that funding will be announced this week.
"That initial funding is a good first step - we estimate there's a considerable weekly sum required to cover this co-payment deficit," Dr Betty said.
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