More than 10,700 signatures on a petition to save GP Access After Hours tell many stories about why people are so scared to lose the service, according to Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon.
"These stories are filled with a sense of loss, the loss of a service potentially at the Mater Hospital, and the loss of hours at four remaining clinics," she said.
"These petitions tell the stories of that loss, what it means to those families who have been using that service over many years now.
"They tell stories of utter disbelief, actually that the government would even contemplate removing an essential frontline health service in our region."
Ms Claydon joined fellow Hunter Labor MPs and doctors involved with GP Access on Friday to speak about the petition, which they will table in parliament next week.
The petition calls on the government to provide funding after the news that the GP Access Calvary Mater clinic will close completely on Christmas Eve and operating hours for clinics at Belmont, John Hunter and Maitland hospitals and Westlakes Community Health Centre will be reduced.
There are also fears the service could face further cuts after an evaluation into the Commonwealth's Primary Health Network (PHN) After Hours Program recommended the department apply the same funding formula to the Hunter New England and Central Coast region as similar - but different - services across the country.
The situation comes after the service was almost lost in 2015, when the government declined to allocate it funding in the budget. Dr Annette Carruthers, who helped found GP Access, said it was an "incredible frustration" that they had to keep fighting for funding.
"So much of health is done 'we'll pilot this, we'll pilot that' and they never become ongoing services even then when they're really successful," she said. "We're just different to everywhere else. So they try and bring us back to mediocre rather than raise everyone else up to our standard. So because it's different, we're under under threat. But... when you have a model that really works, make it mainstream business. They keep trying to cut it."
Dr Carruthers said the service worked with the ED "beautifully" but saw patients "far more cost efficiently".
"GPs are used to more rapid turnover, we're used to dealing with general practice problems, whereas a junior resident in an emergency department isn't," she said. "They'll run off and do a whole lot of tests for someone who's got a simple urinary tract infection that we can deal with in 10 minutes. That's the difference."
Hunter GP Association secretary Dr Lee Fong said the service was particularly vital for vulnerable people, including parents, children and the elderly.
"In the after hours period, GP Access provides a really urgent service to them," he said. "So we're talking about cutting back, maybe even removing this service. What's going to fill that void? I hear nothing except 'go to the emergency department'. That isn't good enough."
Shortland MP Pat Conroy said the service currently ran on $4.5 million a year.
"That $4.5 million saves the health budget north of $16 million a year from avoided ED visits according to independent economic analysis," he said. "This is a half a million dollar cut. But if that review that the government has on its desk... is accepted, of the remaining four million, three million goes. So we will be down to a $1 million service... that effectively ends the service. That's what's at stake now."
