Clinical Matters Newsletter - November 2021 25 Nov 2021

Welcome to the November 2021 Edition of Clinical Matters!

In this issue...

How to Refer For a Blood Transfusion	The GP Liaison Team and How we Can Help
Clinical Nugget: Self-Inflicted "Lip Bite" After dental Anaesthesia	Connecting GPs With Our Local SMOs (Both Tauranga and Whakatāne
COVID in The Home - What Primary Care Needs to Know	Midland HealthPathways Update

How to Refer For a Blood Transfusion

Traditionally, GPs would send a fax to Medical Day Stay at Tauranga Hospital to arrange a blood transfusion.

However, fax machines have been phased out, and referrals should now go via the BPAC ereferral system.
Send it to General Medicine and specify 'Attention Medical Day Stay'.

Please let us know if you have any feedback with your experience with this baynav@bopdhb.govt.nz.

Clinical Nugget: Self-Inflicted "Lip Bite" After Dental Anaesthesia

Have you heard of self-inflicted lip trauma after dental anaesthesia?

"Lip bite", is a common complication of dental treatment after the administration of local anaesethetic, particularly on the lower jaw. Whilst it can be unsightly and uncomfortable for patients, it usually resolves within a week, without the need for any treatment.

You can read more about lip biting in this case report.

COVID in The Home - What Primary Care Needs to Know

The Goodfellow Unit presented this webinar on 28 October 2021 for general practice and primary healthcare on COVID-19 in the home.

Click here to watch the webinar.

When and if there is a surge of COVID-19, there will be sufficient cases in the community to necessitate primary care management of patients at home.

There are good models to follow and it is not difficult to do. In this webinar, the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre specialists cover what has been done in London UK and Canada around home management of COVID-19 patients.

Resources:

Assessment, Monitoring and Management of COVID HFAM Canada
General Practice monitoring and management of mild to moderate COVID-19 Presentation by Dr Dee Mangin
COVID-19 - Pinnacle guides and resources Pinnacle Health
COVID-19 Resources: Managing patients in the community bpac^nz

The GP Liaison Team and How we Can Help

A colleague asked me what does a GP Liaison officer entail. Being new to the role I thought it would be useful to share with GP's across the Bay what we do and how we can help.

There are 3 GP Liaisons across the BOP. We are all working GP's. Chris Tofield and Dan Jackson are based in the Western Bay and me, Paula Taylor based in the Eastern Bay. Working alongside the Innovation and Improvement Team our aim is to make the transition between primary and secondary care services the best we can for our patients and our colleagues.

What can we do to help? We want to hear from you if you have any feedback regarding our interaction with secondary care. For example, do you have concerns about information given to you in a patient Transfer of Care document (discharge summary)? Are there are areas within a specific patient's interaction with secondary care that you feel could be improved? Is there a hospital clinician that has gone above and beyond to help your patient that we should recognise? We will also help secondary care with regards to difficulties they may be experiencing with primary care.

Our team also works on developing and improving the BPAC e-Referrals, Bay Navigator, as well as developing new primary/secondary care pathways (including Midland HealthPathways) based on local need. We want to hear your ideas and concerns about the need for new services and how current services could be improved.

Please share your thoughts about specific scenarios or general ideas for improvement by getting in contact with us on the below email

Baynav@bopdhb.govt.nz

Paula Taylor
GP Liaison and General Practitioner at Tarawera Medical Centre

Connecting GPs With Our Local SMOs (Both Tauranga and Whakatāne)

We have had an influx of GPs to our local GP/SMO Platform on Celo Health in the last couple of weeks. This is a great messaging platform for quick questions between GPs and SMOs in both directions (NB. not for acute patient referrals)

If you haven't already joined, simply download the free app - www.celohealth.com - and text our GP Liaison Dr Chris Tofield on 022 150 1058 for an invite to the group. We are currently working on increasing the number of SMOs in the group, but already have a great breadth of specialties represented, from ortho to paediatrics to renal.

Midland HealthPathways Update

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

And remember there is up-to-date information on all matters Covid-19 for primary care on HealthPathways, 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.