Tarawera Medical Centre was established in August 1989 when 2 of the solo practices combined and moved into the original building at 104 Onslow St to create the first ever Kawerau medical centre. At this stage it had been very challenging for the solo practices to survive as locums were hard to find and recruiting new GPs to take on existing solo practices was impossible. The combination of 2 practices into a Kawerau medical centre for the first time allowed a full team approach to Primary Care with a full complement of Doctors, Nurses and Reception/Admin staff. A visiting Orthopaedic Surgeon (Mr. Preston Moorcroft) from Rotorua allowed Kawerau patients to access this specialist service without having to travel out of town and this service continues still with Mr. Dawie van Niewenhuisen. The medical centre concept where a number of doctors and nurses operate from a single site was new to Kawerau which had been served up until then by solo GPs running their own solo surgeries or clinics.

A year or so later one of the other solo practices closed and asked if we would take over the care of their patients to ensure some continuity of care. We recruited another GP and purchased the adjoining property at 102 Onslow Street when it became available. We joined and customised the 2 buildings to provide 5 consulting rooms, 2 treatment rooms, nurses station, admin office, reception area and 2 waiting rooms. At the same time the Medical Laboratory was added, allowing all services apart from Pharmacy and Physio to accessed on site. Further renovations in 2013/14 have added another large treatment room/nurses room as well as renovating one of the doctor consulting rooms.

The next challenge was when The Porritt Clinic, the final solo practice in Kawerau, precipitously closed and dumped their patient files on our back porch on a Friday afternoon. This confirmed that the historical model of a single GP practice was no longer a sustainable option and the Medical Centre approach where a number of GPs can collegially support each other and provide flexibility with leave as well as providing a wider range of skills was necessary for sustainable service to the community. Finding ourselves not only the only medical centre in town, but now the only medical practice in town was difficult. Absorbing that additional work was very challenging for the staff and the community who have always been overwhelmingly understanding and supportive. Staff recruitment within New Zealand was impossible but finally we managed to recruit from overseas and our more recently arrived GP Aidan Williams has been a real boon to the practice with his young and dynamic approach. This has meshed extremely well with the vast experience of the original three partners. Since May 2015, Rachel Shouler, has added further young blood to the practice. Rachel started as a locum to cover a period of maternity leave and enjoyed her time with us so much decided to stay on.

The site at 106 Onslow Street has been developed as an independent pharmacy (Tarawera Pharmacy) and has added more parking space that is available for our patient’s use, and now means that full GP/Nursing services, Laboratory services and Pharmacy are all available at one site for patients that prefer that option. Physiotherapy services are now also available at the Tarawera Medical Complex thanks to Rebecca Avery opening Tarawera Physiotherapy at the 106 Onslow St site.