Clinical Matters Newsletter - February 2021 26 Feb 2021

Welcome to the February 2021 Edition of Clinical Matters!

In this issue...

Referring to Health and Ageing in EBOP

The Geriatric/HIA outpatient clinic at Whakatāne is struggling with the number of referrals at present. They only have one clinic per month (due to limited SMO FTE), making it difficult to even see urgent referrals promptly enough. We don’t have any information on how long this might last but will keep you posted as we know more.

New Stroke Physician at Tauranga Hospital

As our second stroke expert at Tauranga Hospital we welcome Dr Navinee Gilliat. She is originally from Thailand and completed her medical training in the UK. Her medical interests are stroke and neurovascular medicine. Navinee came to NZ with her small family (husband and daughter). In her own words: “We love the New Zealand North Island climate, food, people and culture. My favourite hobby is Vinyasa yoga in the evening after work. I’m trying to catch up on New Zealand healthcare system and structure.” Welcome Navinee, and we’re sure you’ll love living and working here.

New Patient Information Leaflet - Tauranga Hospital Assessment Planning Unit (APU)

The Assessment Planning Unit (APU) at Tauranga Hospital have been working through improvements arising from an August 2020 staff workshop.

Two issues affecting patients and APU clinical staff are the late arrival of GP referred patients, and patients' expectations around the need to wait to be seen, following their initial clinical assessment.

The patient leaflet covers:

• When should I arrive at APU?
• Where do I park?
• Where do i report to?
• Can I have a support person with me?
• What do I bring with me?
• Will I have to wait?
• What is APU and what can I expect?
• Visitors
• How to contact APU

An initial print run of this patient leaflet will be distributed to Western Bay of Plenty practices through the WBOP Primary Health Organisation and Te Pare ō Toi Māori Health Gains and Development. Click here to view the leaflet.

Coming soon... we're hoping to translate this resource to Te Reo Māori.
You will also find a copy of this new patient leaflet on Bay Navigator.

Accessing NCS and EEG Results Via CHIP - A How to Guide

To look up your patients test results

• All Nerve Conduction studies, and Electro-Encephalon-Graphs are visible within your system.
• To locate this look at your eclair for the patients NHI.
• You will be able to categorise these if you wish, especially if the patient has a lot of tests.
• Click on the categories tab above the list to filter down to the below

 

 

Click on the relevant category you require.  The report will then open.

 

Announcement: Two New Chief Medical Officers at BOPDHB

BOPDHB would like to announce the appointment of two new Chief Medical Officers, Dr Kate Grimwade and Dr Luke Bradford.
 
Kate is well known to many at BOPDHB having been with the organisation since 2007. She has been Medical Services Medical Leader since 2015. Kate's portfolio will cover medicine, psychiatry and the Emergency Department.
 
Luke has been a GP Partner at Fifth Avenue Family Practice Tauranga since 2013 and has been Co-Chair of the Western Bay of Plenty PHO since 2016. Luke is the first community-based clinician to hold the CMO role in the Bay of Plenty. His portfolio will cover surgery, paediatrics, gynaecology and radiology.
 
The two CMO positions will replace the Chief Medical Advisor/Medical Director role formerly held by Dr Hugh Lees.
 
Please continue to use BayNav@bopdhb.govt.nz as your first port of call to provide feedback to the DHB and GP Liaison team.
 
Congratulations to Kate and Luke on their appointments.

     

Midland HealthPathways Update

New pathways for GPs on HealthPathways
The following pathways are now live on our HealthPathways site for you to use:

• Firearms License Notification
• Haemochromatosis and Raised Ferritin
• Dabigatran and Rivaroxaban

And remember there is up-to-date information on all matters Covid-19 for primary care on Health Pathways, including national as well as local information.

HealthPathways is a collection of management guidelines specifically tailored to primary care.  Our GP Liaison team is in the process of 'localising' these pathways to the Bay of Plenty, i.e, making them relevant to GPs and other primary care providers specifically in the Bay of Plenty.  You'll find valuable pointers on history, examination, treatment and of course when and how to refer patients on to other services.  These pathways will, over time, be replacing the Bay Navigator pathways.