Tauriko locals will be able to access GP services right on their back doorstep when Chadwick Healthcare launches its 'pop-up doc” clinic at The Crossing.

The innovative service is a departure from the norm where pharmacies co-locate with practices, instead, the small GP clinic will be based within The Crossing Pharmacy when it opens April 3.

'What we're doing is unusual,” says Chadwick Healthcare lead GP Dr Marshall Hollister-Jones.

'We're aiming to service the needs of a rapidly growing community, and this approach has allowed us to get up and running very quickly.”

Chadwick Healthcare's main surgery is based in Greerton, with full medical centre and support services. But the practice has a number of patients in Tauriko who've been asking whether services could be provided nearer to their homes.

General Manager Joe Rosser says Tauranga Crossing was chosen as the site for the new clinic because it had relatively easy and quick access to Chadwick Healthcare's surgery at Greerton. The practice has a total of seven doctors and GP Mark Taylor will be based part-time at Tauriko.

However, Joe warns they won't be able to deal with everything at the pharmacy clinic.

'But if our patients find they need any of the additional services provided by our Greerton practice, it will still be very easy for them to access them.”

The pharmacy also has the space to potentially add another consulting room as demand grows at the clinic, adds Joe.

The Crossing Pharmacy owner Barbara Covell, who also owns Downtown Pharmacy Mount Maunganui, says she'd been receiving a number of enquiries from local residents about whether GP services would be available in Tauriko.

'The association with Chadwick Healthcare is ideal for me. It absolutely fits with my philosophy that medical and pharmacy professionals should work closely together.

'This will satisfy the growing need of residents in our new and growing suburb.”

New patients can download an enrolment form from www.chadhealth.co.nz and all patients can book appointments through the Greerton surgery admin system.