Funding cuts impacting the Roxburgh Health Centre from January 2026 have forced HealthCentral to rethink its levels of services in the Teviot Valley.

WellSouth Primary Health Network told HealthCentral in July that a significant portion of its PHO rural health funding would be cut, claiming it had been erroneously paying $130,000 a year since 2015.

HealthCentral said it was completely blindsided by the announcement and on September 23 issued WellSouth a formal notice of dispute.

But HealthCentral general manager Jenaya Smith said, when contacted this week, aside from an email acknowledging the notice, “Wellsouth PHO have failed to show our community or practice the respect of providing a response”. 

“The unfortunate reality of this unforeseen funding cut is that our practice will regretfully need to implement changes to the weekend and public holiday after hours services we currently provide,” Jenaya said.

“This is completely at odds with our proven ability and willingness to remove barriers to accessing services and provide affordable care closer to home, seven days a week. 

“We have, however, been left with little choice as we simply cannot continue to deliver the same level of service with 55 percent less rural funding to pay for it.”

She said they are currently working through what the potential impact could be for the Teviot community, “but remain hopeful that we will be able to find a solution”.

Read more: Roxburgh Medical Centre blindsided by funding withdrawal

Jenaya said WellSouth had knowingly targeted one of the most vulnerable rural communities in the region.  

“Disappointingly, they are yet to even substantiate their claim and to date have failed to provide us with the necessary evidence which informed their decision to cut the rural funding received by our Roxburgh location by 85 percent (representing an overall rural funding cut for HealthCentral of 55 percent).”

Alexandra-based HealthCentral has been operating the Roxburgh Health Centre since 2022 after the centre struggled to find and retain GPs. 

HealthCentral has said it couldn’t be expected to absorb the significantly higher cost and responsibility of rostering staff on weekends and public holidays.

The Roxburgh Health Services Trust accused WellSouth of “financial mismanagement”, but WellSouth said the transitional money had been overpaid and had to be put back into the pot.

WellSouth supports 78 general practices across its network in Otago and Southland, 37 of which are classified as rural general.

Andrew Swanson-Dobbs

WellSouth chief executive Andrew Swanson-Dobbs said the organisation received $5.48M in rural funding this year, which had to be spread across the 37 rural practices equitably.

When contacted this week, he said WellSouth was a strong advocate for rural funding, citing his involvement in negotiations with the government which led to the recent rural capitation increase.

“We are funded by Health New Zealand, serving a community of more than 335,000 people over two regions across 78 general practices, half of which are rural. We are pushing for system-level change so that all rural general practices are supported and sustained.”

Have a story to share or comment to make? Contact [email protected]