Dunedin City GP will be increasing fees for patients, effective from the 3rd of January 2025.
The change does not include standard consultations for children under 14 years who remain free, or patients who hold Community Service Cards.
In doing this, we are joining most other clinics in the country, as healthcare continues to be desperately underfunded by Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora), while the cost of running our clinic continues to rise. Rather than increasing our funding the government has asked us to pass that cost onto you, our patients, by increasing our fees.
Our new fees for a standard 15 minute medical or ACC consultation are:
Child (0-13) – No charge
Youth (14-17) – $16.00
Adult (18+) - $62 , CSC holder – $19.50
Adult double appointment (30 minutes), $124.00, CSC holder – $39.00
*Telephone consultations are the same charge as face-to-face consultations.
We join our primary care colleagues around the country in feeling deeply distressed by this situation, at a time when many of our patients are struggling with cost of living increases. We want to continue to provide excellent quality care for you, as well as maintaining good, safe working conditions for our staff. We cannot continue to do this with the insufficient funding we have been offered by Health New Zealand.
We ask for your kindness toward our staff, as we are all doing our best to continue to provide our care for you at this challenging time. As always, if you are suffering financial hardship, please let our team know, so that we can do our best to support you.
We also have our low fees clinic ($15 for all aged 14 years or over) through Dunedin Community Health where you receive the same services as Dunedin City GP and have the same access to high quality healthcare. There are certain eligibility criteria - please discuss with our staff to see if you qualify.
If you would like to check if you are eligible for a community services’ card, you can ring 0800 999 999 or ask reception for an application form to send to Ministry for Social Development or check out https://check.msd.govt.nz/services/community-services-card.