GP Appointments
Latest News and Information
Locum GP
We are happy to inform you all and welcome – Dr John Lane, who will be joining the team for the next few months from December.
John C Lane, MD
I graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas in 1990 and completed my specialist training in Family Medicine in 1993 in Arizona. After 12 years in private practice, I brought Leah and our two children to New Zealand and I worked at Otaki Medical Centre for six years. We moved to Arkansas in 2011 and I have been a Clinical Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences since 2014 where I enjoy helping new doctors become Certified Family Physicians! I am on a leave of absence to work at Mana Medical for four months!
I especially enjoy helping manage chronic illnesses and working with older folks. I look forward to seeing acute medical problems, too.
My son Joseph teaches Maths and Japanese at Onslow. Leah and I look forward to spending time with him and his wife Beky as well as taking evening walks in the Mana area and enjoying weekends in Wellington. A little sailing and swimming would be great, too!
Mask Wearing Update
The staff here at Mana Medical Centre have appreciated your ongoing support of mask wearing, especially over the past winter.
We have reviewed our mask wearing policy and from 30th September. Mask wearing in the practice is at your discretion, however, we would appreciate if you have any cold or flu-like symptoms to wear a mask whilst in the practice. This is to continue to protect our vulnerable patients and staff.
Thank you for your assistance
Fee Increases 2024
Dear All,
We hope you are well this winter. We regret to inform you of an unavoidable fee increase starting from 23rd July.
Once a year, the government sets the limits for our fee increases and determines the funding we receive to manage your care. This year, they have granted us only a 4% increase in funding and have told us to raise patient fees by an average of 7.76% in an attempt to help with the increasing costs.
Despite this, our healthcare system is underfunded. A report by Sapere suggests that most practices need at least a 34% funding increase to remain viable, but this has been ignored. Currently, primary care receives only 5.4% of the health budget, even though it significantly reduces hospital costs.
Primary care manages 23 million GP contacts annually, while emergency departments handle 1 million.
A 6% reduction in primary care capacity would double the workload in emergency departments. To maintain quality healthcare to you and prevent hospital overload, increased funding for primary care is essential.
We want to continue to provide excellent and timely healthcare to all our patients. We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where you have a 6 week wait to see a GP, as is the case in some areas.
We understand this fee increase is not welcome news and appreciate your understanding.
We would love you to email our Minister for Health, Dr Shane Reti at s.reti@ministers.govt.nz and express your support for more GP funding.
Please see below a selection of recent articles informing you of the underlining the issues.
Thank you.
Covid Boosters
We are now able to offer covid boosters here at the practice. Please call reception on 04 2338019 to make an appointment with the nurse
Menopause Clinic
Dr Caroline Armstrong and Dr Rini Chegudi are NZ- trained GP’s who has an interest in women’s health and menopause. Our new Menopause clinic will provide you with a comprehensive assessment. If you would like more information please click here
Cervical Screening Programme Update
There have been some changes in the National Cervical Screening Programme in Aotearoa, New Zealand. HPV (Human Pampiloma Virus) is now the primary screening test.
Find out more about your options visit: TimeToCervicalScreen.nz or freephone 0800 729 729.
Laboratory times
We have the Lab (Awanui) working out of the practice:
Thursday and Friday: 8.00-8.30am
Virtual Health After Hours
Introducing Practice Plus a same day virtual after-hours GP appointments to suit you and your whanau. Click here to make an appointment
Please click here for more information
Terms and Conditions for phone and video consults
We are pleased to announce that due to patient request we will continue to offer phone and video consultations. These will be charged at the same rate as a face to face consultation.