‘Gap' in care to be fixed
Aroha Metcalf. PHOTO: JULES CHIN
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) has confirmed it is seeking proposals for the service, which will cater for children, adolescents and youth.
A request for proposals on the government's GETS website, expiring on May 19, says the service will "address the current service gap" in the region.
In a statement, HNZ Te Waipounamu community integration group manager Aroha Metcalf said the service was expected to begin in the "second half of 2025".
Ms Metcalf said she could not say more until the contract was awarded, but confirmed the new service had emerged from the "Te Hurihanga — Time for Change" review.
guy.williams@odt.co.nz
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
19 hours ago
- Scoop
Thousands In The South Benefiting From CPCT
More than 6,600 people so far across Southland and Otago have benefited from a nationwide programme called Comprehensive Primary & Community Care Teams (or CPCT), which offers free care for those in need. This is according to a new evaluation report by WellSouth, the primary health organisation (PHO) for Southland and Otago, which facilitates the Health New Zealand-funded programme locally. Established to improve equity of access and health outcomes, particularly for Māori, Pacific, and rural peoples, the report shows CPCT is doing its job. In just 12 months, 6,672 people have had help from teams in Southland and Otago. Over a fifth were Māori, with a similar proportion of Pacific Peoples, two groups who are historically less likely to connect with primary care. WellSouth CEO, Andrew Swanson-Dobbs, says the evaluation report shows CPCT improves access to care and plugs gaps in current provision. 'Our team spoke to patients and staff involved with the programme, and the results show many benefits, from making a real difference to people's lives and their long-term engagement with health services generally, to freeing up GP capacity, to building better relationships between teams and providers.' The evaluation showed improved long-term condition management, reductions in hospital readmissions, decreased social isolation, and increased health literacy. Practices involved in CPCT also saw a statistically significant increase in preventive care such as immunisations and cardiovascular risk assessments. In terms of workforce, CPCT provided for 17.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff across 37 locations, some at general practices, some at community providers and some across both. CPCT Teams include care coordinators, clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists and kaiāwhina, who often visit people at home. Mr Swanson-Dobbs says CPCT teams also strengthen partnerships between local community providers and general practices that are in a CPCT geographic cluster. 'Relationships and partnerships have been instrumental to the success of this initiative, and we are incredibly grateful to all the staff and providers who are part of making this work. 'These multidisciplinary teams are providing support well beyond traditional clinical care, including health education, social support and system navigation.' The report shows that WellSouth's role has been central to the success of CPCT in the South, with the evaluation highlighting the PHO's support in enabling collaboration, offering workforce development funding, and providing strategic and practical guidance for new initiatives. 'As a PHO, we're proud to have facilitated the connections, trust and flexibility needed for this to thrive,' says Mr Swanson-Dobbs. Funded by Health New Zealand, CPCT was designed to strengthen primary and community care by embedding new roles into general practice teams. WellSouth was contracted to roll out CPCT across the Southern region, and brought together general practices, Māori and Pacific providers into local clusters to deliver care.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Rare disorder derails BoP footballer's US dreams
But that didn't help. Instead, it got much worse. A gastroenterologist told her she had gastritis following an endoscopy. 'He loaded me up with nausea meds, antacids and everything and then I went back to America.' She struggled through her second year playing in the US. Back in New Zealand, a colonoscopy revealed inflammation in her large intestine, which led to a Crohn's disease diagnosis. She started treatment for Crohn's, including weekly injections, but did not see improvements. Three years ago, Rachel Weatherly was in the US on a football scholarship when she suddenly started vomiting and feeling unwell. She said when she had to switch from private healthcare to public for financial reasons, everything 'fell apart'. The specialist ruled out Crohn's and concluded she had an eating disorder. She said she felt let down. 'They wouldn't do anything. They basically said it was eating disorders. I was going downhill real fast, losing weight a lot faster. I wasn't really keeping anything down.' Weatherly said she spent many appointments describing her symptoms, including constant pain, nausea, exhaustion and inability to eat without excruciating pain. Her own research led her to believe she was experiencing abdominal vascular compressions. 'I found a bunch of stories within NZ, predominantly young women, and they basically had the exact same story as me. They helped guide me through the diagnostic process,' said Weatherly. Rachel Weatherly couldn't eat or drink, and was losing weight and becoming malnourished, before she was put on a feeding tube. Late last year she visited a private specialist who raised suspicion of EDS while consulting about the possibility of AVCS. He ordered a CT scan and a Doppler ultrasound and diagnosed one compression before suggesting she get the scan reviewed by experts overseas who specialise and treat AVCS. A surgeon in Germany reviewed her imaging and diagnosed her with three compressions. He recommended surgery in Germany. There were also options to have it in Spain and Australia. Weatherly said the estimated cost was $60,000 to $150,000. She hoped to fly to Australia next month to meet with a surgeon who had also reviewed her imaging. If he couldn't help, she planned to go to Germany. Treatment in the meantime included using a nasogastric feeding tube. The surgery is controversial and has been described as 'experimental', with some New Zealand vascular surgeons raising concerns about the lack of medical literature to support it. Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora national chief medical officer Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard said a very careful assessment of how AVCS was diagnosed and treated in New Zealand was required. Stokes-Lampard said there was little data available to back a diagnosis, as it was a relatively rare disease. 'Health New Zealand has established a national vascular multidisciplinary meeting which is available to review patients who may have one of these vascular complications.' This aimed to ensure patients received the most appropriate care. 'This meeting will determine whether a case requires surgery and, if it does, whether this is best managed without surgery or recommend surgery that could be done via the High-Cost Treatment Pool [funding for treatment overseas] or locally, depending on the individual's circumstance,' Stokes-Lampard said. 'For these types of conditions, we find that many patients respond well to treatment without the need for further interventions. 'Surgical treatment is not always considered the best option for an individual, particularly because the level of complexity and uncertainty varies from case to case.' Stokes-Lampard said in these instances, an individual might still wish to receive treatment overseas but would need to fund it themselves. Athenree mother-of-two Pamela Coburn, 41, recently underwent surgery in Germany. Photo / Brydie Thompson Weatherly has found support from other Kiwis with EDS and AVCS, including meeting Tauranga mum-of-two, Pamela Coburn. Coburn had her last-resort surgery for AVCS in Germany a year ago. Coburn said within four months after the surgery, she had no symptoms or pain related to AVCS. She would do it again tomorrow if needed, even though the costs were substantial. 'I have my life back,' she said. Athenree mother-of-two Pamela Coburn, 41 (left), recently underwent surgery in Germany. Rachel Weatherly, 23, a former Tauranga Moana Football Club player from Whakatāne, is currently fundraising so she too can get surgery. Photo / Brydie Thompson Weatherly's father, Peter Weatherly, said his daughter was a fighter. 'She does not give up on anything.' 'Even last year when Rachel was unwell, still on all the meds she decided she was going to do a pre-apprenticeship to be an electrician.' While juggling relentless symptoms and countless medical appointments, she managed to earn the second-highest grade in her class. With the support of her local football club, community and a Givealittle fundraiser under way, Weatherly is fighting not just for her own health, but for awareness and change in the health system. 'No one should have to go through what me and many others have been through,' she said. 'If we can make the road a little easier for the next person, that's the goal.'
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Nelson Hospital Review Fails To Hold Leadership To Account
The review of Nelson Hospital released by Health New Zealand today is little more than a 'plan to make a plan' the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says. The review just restates well-established problems with leadership and severe understaffing at Nelson Hospital which are causing delayed care for hundreds of patients. The Nelson Review was commissioned after Senior Medical Officers spoke to media in March about the poor working conditions. Doctors, fed up with inaction, described massive wait times for first specialist appointments, and repeated refusals from leadership to address staffing shortages across many departments. This prompted Health New Zealand's chief clinical officer Richard Sullivan to commission a review. He said, "I would hope we will have some answers within weeks." "Four months later and all we have is a a plan to make a plan," ASMS executive director Sarah Dalton says." Doctors, nurses and patients want solutions to these ongoing problems, not a bland description of known issues leadership should have addressed years ago. "The review lacks timeframes, holds no leaders to account for these failures. Just last month Nelson Hospital was again in the news for booking "ghost clinics" in what appears to be an attempt to game the system in regard to first specialists' appointments numbers. "There is a worrying trend of poor management and poor leadership at Nelson Hospital which the review fails to address."ASMS is disappointed there has been little engagement with hospital staff - and no consultation as to the review's findings and recommendations. "We understand regional deputy chief executive Martin Keogh and National Chief Clinical Officer Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard presented the report to just a handful of senior staff and gave other staff just 24 hours' notice to a 30-minute briefing. "This is a wasted opportunity to make positive change," Dalton says the real finding from the review is that the issues at Nelson are present in other hospitals around the motu. "The review uses comparative data that paints the dire picture of medical staffing gaps in similar sized hospitals across the country too. This aligns with our own findings. We simply need more doctors," she says. "Short staffing and increased acute patient demand, coupled with a lack of accountability from our health leaders that allow hospitals to be so poorly staffed has bred a culture of getting by instead of getting ahead." Additional information ASMS has been working with senior doctors and managers to conduct in job-sizing activities independent of the Nelson Hospital Review. The following are findings from these activities: - ASMS has completed 17 service reviews (job sizing) across the Nelson Marlborough district since are nine further services still to assess. - Our findings so far - which Nelson Hospital management has accepted - show these departments are short a total of 48.7 senior medical officers. - Only 14.7 vacant SMO roles, identified in job sizing, are currently budgeted to be replaced. - Nelson and Wairau hospital district do not provide recruitment or retention allowances, or "public-only" allowances to senior medical and dental staff. This measure would help fill vacancies. - Senior doctors are routinely working beyond their contracted FTE with large amounts of unpaid overtime being gifted to the hospital to fill staffing gaps. Leadership is aware of this. - Senior doctors are not being allocated their non-clinical time (this is non-patient facing work, including teaching, planning, audit, research, and the like) due to the acute patient load and short staffing. - Nelson district has been in breach of its obligation to have formal recovery time arrangements since 2020. This measure allows senior medical staff to safely recover after working overnight calls. The district has been in breach of this SECA clause since 2020 with most departments having no formal arrangements in place. - All reviewed services are currently understaffed Services we've reviewed to date (job-sized): Nelson anaesthesia , Child and adolescent mental health services, Cardiology Nelson general surgery, Nelson ED, Wairau ED, endocrinology, Nelson general medicine, Wairau general medicine, Nelson pediatrics, Wairau pediatrics, respiratory, Nelson O&G, Wairau O&G, older persons' health, vascular surgery, neurology
