Kenepuru Hospital's 24-hour clinic has already been shut at night at times when staff cannot be found. Now it is proposed to shut it from 11pm to 7am.

Tens of thousands of people, from Wellington's northern suburbs to the Kapiti Coast, look set to lose access to after-hours medical care.

The 24-hour medical centre at Kenepuru Hospital has been having trouble with staffing at night, and is looking to close between 11pm and 7am.

The Capital & Coast District Health Board, which runs the centre, emphasises that the partial closure is only an idea, and the community will be asked for feedback on various options.

MONIQUE FORD/ FAIRFAX NZ Ella Clifford, 9, and brother Jacob, 7, are regular users of the after-hours service. Jacob is an asthmatic, and Ella went there last year with what turned out to be twisted ovaries.

Porirua Deputy Mayor 'Ana Coffey, who is running to sit on the Capital & Coast board, has vowed to try and save the service if she wins a seat in the upcoming election.

READ MORE:

* Two Lower Hutt practices refuse refugees over funding stoush

* Suspicious fire burns through Wellington medical centre

* Mothers outraged at hospital errors​

* Ambos for after-hours care?

SUPPLIED Porirua Deputy Mayor 'Ana Coffey wants to save the after-hours service.

The closure of the centre would mean residents from the Kapiti Coast southwards would have to travel into Wellington for treatment between 11pm and 7am.

"It's a real concern," Coffey said. "It will be a long trip into Wellington, and really that is not easy for some of the community we are from."

Many did not have cars. "The issue is, if you have sick kids and you jump in the car, the worst thing is to have it closed."

Porirua mother Shari Clifford experienced last year what shutting the service would mean, as there have already been nights when the centre has been closed because of a lack of medical staff.

"My daughter got really sick and we went there and it was shut, so we had to go to Wellington."

There they faced a four-hour wait before finding out that daughter Ella, then 8, needed her appendix removed and ovaries untwisted.

Clifford regularly visited the Kenepuru service when her son, Jacob, 7, had asthma attacks, and said losing it would be "absolutely horrible".

"You don't know when it is going to happen ... even a child with an ear infection that is screaming – 40 minutes [to Wellington] is too far."

DOCTOR SHORTAGE AT NIGHT

Cannons Creek GP Bryan Betty, who chairs the Integrated Care Collaboration, said: "People of Porirua need a safe emergency service.

"We need to go out to the community to discusss."

While people with emergency conditions, such as heart attacks, got an ambulance into Wellington Hospital's emergency department, the after-hours service dealt with things such as ear infections, temperatures, rashes, and coughs.

A lack of GPs – especially those willing to work the hours – was behind the proposal, and there were nights when a doctor could not be found, meaning only nurses were on.

Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett, who is stepping down from his role on the health board in the upcoming election, said there was no proposal to close the centre entirely, and the issue was being taken up with the community.

"We want to share this issue with the community, not tell them what is going to happen.

"The number of people using it between 11pm and 7am is not huge, but the point is people know it is there ... they can call on it if need be."

The staffing issue had been going on for more than a decade, he said. "People have rocked up and found it closed because they haven't been able to find a locum."

Health board chairwoman Virginia Hope said the only decision made so far was to "have discussions with the community".

While one option was closing the service from 11pm to 7am, there was also the option to retain it "to find something to better serve the community".