The Western Bay of Plenty is set to get more general practitioners over the next year as the region continues to grow.

Additional general practices are expected to open in the Western Bay of Plenty within the next year as existing general practices look to manage increased demand, says the Western Bay of Plenty Public Health Organisation.

A recent call by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board for people with coughs and colds to stay away from Tauranga Hospital's emergency department sparked a flood of comments to SunLive's Facebook page, with people saying both cost and a lack of availability of GPs often left them with no other choice.

'A lot of GPs don't have the space,” said one post. 'We are wanting to change GPs, but everywhere else is full. Also, for people like me that don't have a car and your GP is closed at the weekend or after hours, what are we supposed to do?”

'The problem as I see it is people get crook at all hours of the day and most GP clinics close at 5.30pm,” said another. 'Also, the clinics are usually full and you can't be seen for days.”

Another read: 'It's not just the cost of GPs, it's the wait. With our last GP we would often have to wait up to a week for appointments. Not good when you have very unwell children.”

The WBOP PHO's general practice services manager, Phil Back, says the Western Bay population has grown rapidly in recent years, and this has placed pressure on services.

There is currently one full-time GP for every 1345 patients in the Western Bay – up from just under 1300 to one in 2016.

'WBOP PHO practices have largely responded to this increase in demand through offering urgent care clinics each day as part of their appointments available,” says Phil.

'The good news is that we are expecting additional general practices to open in the WBOP within the next year or so, as existing general practices look to further manage this increased demand.

'Many health professionals are also keen to move to the Western Bay to take advantage of lifestyle opportunities, so staffing these new practices is generally not an issue.”

There are currently 29 general practices under the WBOP PHO, up from 26 two years ago.

Twenty-five of these practices are taking on new patients – a 'significant” improvement on two years ago when only 14 were taking on patients, says Phil.

'We strongly encourage everybody to enrol with one of the PHO's general practices,” he says 'This will mean that you are automatically enrolled with the PHO as well, and we will subsidise your visits to your GP.”

According to the WBOP PHO website, GP fees across the region vary from between $34.50 and $47 for adults, with reduced pricing for young people and seniors in some practices. Under-13s receive free health care.

There is only one low-cost general practice listed in Tauranga – Ngati Kahu Hauora in Bethlehem – which charges $17.50 for adults.

The fees are around the median of what is charged nationally.

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners 2017 General Practice Workplace Survey found that 25 per cent of GPs in the Bay of Plenty worked in a practice with a GP vacancy, compared to 26 per cent nationwide.

Twenty per cent of survey respondents in the BOP said their practices had ‘closed books' or were no longer accepting patients compared to 10 per cent nationally.

When asked if they considered more than half of the patients in their practice would meet the Ministry of Health definition of ‘high needs', nearly 27 per cent of Bay of Plenty GPs said yes compared to 24 per cent nationally.

The percentage of Bay of Plenty GPs who considered their patients would frequently defer GP visits due to cost was more than 52 per cent compared to 46 per cent nationally.