Continuity for small-town clinic

Colville Community Health Centre has a new GP and nurse practitioner and hasn’t missed a beat since long-serving specialist GP Kate Armstrong-Campbell departed.

Dr Armstrong-Campbell stepped down in October, saying funding combined with workforce shortages had made it increasingly difficult to manage the clinic as a sustainable business. The Coromandel Family Health Centre agreed to take over the clinic’s services, and patients were able to transfer their enrolments.

Last month, New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa reported the clinic was closing after Dr Armstrong-Campbell told the community that the practice would shut on 27 October.

However, Coromandel Family Health Centre director and specialist GP Bryan MacLeod says Colville needs a general practice, and the health centre decided to keep it running.

“The people in the town need to know they’ve still got a clinic,” Dr MacLeod says. “And it is continuing. It’s just a different operator and a different PHO.”

He says Alex McLeod has taken over as the practice’s doctor and will be accompanied by NP Sonia Wirihana-Tawake. The Colville clinic has switched from Hauraki PHO to Pinnacle Midlands Health, the PHO Coromandel Family Health belongs to.