Primary Health Organisation makes changes at Pahiatua Medical Centre

The Primary Health Organisation will install an independent manager at the Pahiatua Medical Centre, where staff are threatening to resign en masse next week , due to under-resourcing.

On Thursday, nurse practitioner Victoria Perry told RNZ Checkpoint that failure to replace departing staff had put preventative screenings for bowel, breast and prostate cancer a year behind schedule, while regular patients were waiting three months for appointments.

She feared people would die, if the clinic could not provide even its most basic of services and follow-up tests for its 5000 patients.

Staff have called for the PHO - which contacts the clinic for its services - to intervene and chief executive Tony Wai has told Checkpoint that intervention will begin with new management.

"The situation has clearly escalated, which we're treating very seriously," he said.