Nurse Phillipe Millard oversees care for his brother Paul, who has an intellectual disability and recently moved to Waratah to be close to medical services.

"This is absolutely paramount for people like my brother and older people in the community," Mr Millard said.

"Closing a service like this on Christmas Eve is an absolute slap in the face to us and we're absolutely appalled."

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Mr Millard said his brother had three admissions to the emergency department in the past 30 days, trips the family tried to avoid whenever they could.

"His behaviours are horrendous if the waiting periods are long, so he's actually had to be physically and chemically restrained in the emergency department before because he just doesn't handle those long ED waits," he said.

"So having a service that can flow through and see him within 30 minutes of making an appointment is absolutely paramount for people who are disabled."

Mr Millard called on the government to "urgently" reinstate the clinic, saying it didn't make sense to make changes at one of the busiest times of the year and during a pandemic, when people are being urged to stay away from hospitals.

He joined Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon and Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery on Thursday to make a last-ditch appeal to the government to save the service, which will close at the Calvary Mater from December 24 and reduce opening hours at its four other clinics.

Ms Claydon, who started the Save Newcastle's After Hours GP Service petition that has more than 11,500 signatures, called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to intervene "because his minister for health has failed to do so".

She said keeping the service fully operational made sense from a social, public health and economic perspective and saved the health system up to $21 million per year.

Ms Hornery said there would be "chaos in our hospital system" if the service was weakened.

NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association John Hunter Hospital and Children's Hospital delegate Kieran Patterson said health workers were "really disappointed the federal and state governments have chosen to ignore the benefits of keeping the service open and running".

"We feel like we're already stretched with our staffing issues and the current COVID situation, that this is the last thing that we need," she said.

"We just think it's a horrible funding decision and unfortunately it's going to lead to even longer wait times and not going to benefit our patients in ED whatsoever."

Hunter Primary Care - which has provided the Lower Hunter with access to the after-hours medical service for 20 years - chief executive Brenda Ryan told the Herald in October that fixed Commonwealth funding via the Primary Health Network's [PHN] After Hours program, the freeze in Medicare Benefits Scheme revenue and demand slowing during COVID lockdowns had all played a role.

"Our operational costs have gone up, but our funding has remained fairly static," she said.

Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp said at the time the PHN had provided the service with static funding of about $8 million in the past two years, despite operational and employment costs increasing.

He said Hunter New England Health's (HNEH) financial support for the service had dropped from $559,000 in the 2020 financial year to $105,000 in 2021, to what would be "zero" in 2022.

HNEH chief executive Michael DiRienzo said the health district had made a financial contribution to the after-hours service in the past when there weren't any other after-hours services available.

He said its funding primarily needed to go to its hospitals and acute services and ultimately, after-hours services were primarily funded through the Commonwealth and Medicare.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said it funds the PHN to support a range of after hours services in the region.

"In recent years, the Commonwealth has maintained funding to the [PHN] to support after hours services, including additional funding to support the Hunter Primary Care GP Access clinics," she said.

"The PHN has provided Hunter Primary Care $4.3 million per year since 2017, plus a one off top up amount of $1,598,400 in the last financial year to make up for the withdrawal of funding by the NSW state government, taking the 2020-21 Commonwealth investment to $5.9 million."

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