News | Hobsonville Family Doctors

December Update

Torrance Merkle
Dec 3
3 min read

Kia ora whānau,

In this update you will find:

Team updates
Holiday opening hours
Boost your wellbeing - support is available
Updates on measles protection for you and your family
AI at HFD
Visiting Specialists
Appointments
Prescribing Changes

Ngā mihi nui,

The team at Hobsonville Family Doctors

Opening Hours

We are now opening from 7am on Mondays and Wednesdays due to popular demand. We also continue to open late on Thursdays until 7pm.

Our opening hours are:Monday 7am - 6pmTuesday 8am - 5pmWednesday 7am - 6pmThursday 8am - 7pmFriday 8am - 5pm

Team Updates

We're absolutely delighted to announce Dr Andrew Lott will join HFD on 12th January. Andrew completed his medical training in Auckland and has worked in both New Zealand and Australia across general practice and urgent care. His areas of interest include paediatrics, travel medicine, and preventative health, with a strong focus on healthspan and lifestyle medicine. He believes that good health is about more than treating illness - it’s about helping people thrive through everyday habits. He encourages a balanced, holistic lifestyle approach to wellbeing that harnesses nutrition, functional movement, restorative sleep, and effective stress management. Outside of medicine, Andrew is married with three young children and a Labrador who keeps the family active. He enjoys trail running and mountain biking, and brings this same enthusiasm for movement and the outdoors into his approach to patient care.

We are sad to announce Dr Carolyn Bulman is leaving Auckland at the end of 2025. Carolyn has been a valuable member of the team and we wish her all the best.

Holiday Opening Hours

To allow our staff time to rest and recuperate with family we are reducing our opening hours over the holiday period with limited capacity for routine appointments.

Please ensure you organise repeat scripts and book doctors appointments well in advance to avoid any holiday hiccups.

We will be closed from 3pm on Wednesday 24th December, and reopening Monday 5th January.

Healthline is a completely free service to call for health advice and information 0800 611 116.

Virtual appointments are available through CareHQ via your Indici patient portal or for Southern Cross members please book through your MySouthernCross app. PocketLab is another great telehealth service available for any health concerns over the break.

If you do need to be seen urgently, you can go to Waitakere Hospital, or White Cross Henderson at 131 Lincoln Road, which is a 24/7 walk-in clinic.

Upcoming Changes to Prescribing Laws

From early 2026, prescribing legislation will change to allow for prescriptions longer than 3 months. Safe, high quality care is really important to us at HFD, and so we will only be issuing prescriptions longer than 3 months for in person consultations, for medications and conditions that don’t need as much monitoring. All portal / phone / email prescription requests will be for 3 months by default.

Please also note that the maximum amount of medications that can be dispensed from the pharmacy is a 3 month supply at a time.

ADHD Legislation Changes

From 1st February 2026, GPs with experience managing ADHD will be able to diagnose and start people on ADHD medications, without needing a psychiatrist review first.

We are looking into providing this as a service at HFD in the future, but cannot yet confirm how this will look. We will provide further details closer to that time.

Holiday Hours Reminder