Clinical Matters Newsletter April 2024 23 Apr 2024

In this issue:

CT outage at Whakatāne Hospital between 22 - 26 April 2024
Change in process for Giant Cell Arteritis
Secondary Care Acute Admissions
New Community HealthPathways
National Bowel Screening Primary Care Promotion
National Bowel Screening Panui
Mindful Medicine Workshop

CT outage at Whakatāne Hospital between 22 - 26 April 2024

There will be a period of CT outage at Whakatāne Hospital while a new CT machine is installed.

This installation will take place between 22 – 26 April 2024.

A formal plan will be place and there will be occasions where Tauranga Hospital may take referrals and responsibility for patients in need of urgent CT’s during this period.

Thanks for your kindness and consideration while we go through this together.

Change in process for Giant Cell Arteritis

A new process is in place for patients with suspected Giant Cell Arteritis in the Bay of Plenty.

The Fast Track Giant Cell Arteritis eReferral form has been discontinued. Please use the generic rheumatology form instead.

However, as before, please make sure you telephone a rheumatologist to discuss your case before sending the referral. They are available through the hospital switchboard (07 579 8044) on weekdays 1-4pm. If the rheumatologist agrees that a referral is required, please mark it ‘Urgent’.

The full pathway is available here.

Please contact the Bay Navigator team via with any queries.

Secondary Care Acute Admissions

The emergency department have had an increased number of patients presenting after seeing their GP without the appropriate specialty accepting the patient and an electronic referral being sent. This may be due to a number of new GPs arriving to the area who are not aware of the protocol.

Please make sure that when there is a need for an acute admission you phone the appropriate specialty team via the hospital switchboard (07 5798044) to discuss your request for admission. Remember to state whether you want a Tauranga or Whakatāne team. This needs to be followed up by the acute hospital electronic referral form, stating the specialty you are referring to and the person you have spoken to.

Screen shot of Referral To section of the electronic referral

Screen shot of Acute section of the electronic referral

If the admission is needed before the team is available, then a phone call to discuss it with the emergency department is needed.

There is a “one call” policy with Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora which states “Where an inappropriate team has fielded the call, the receiving medical practitioner should explain why they feel that this is the incorrect service but accept the patient on behalf of the hospital and then pass the details onto the appropriate receiving medical team. Phone referrals called to ED because of GP inability to contact the inpatient specialty team will be accepted by the ED Senior Medical Officer (SMO) and details passed on to the clinical team”.

You may need to politely remind them of this, and you still need to follow this up with an electronic referral.

Kind regards,

The Bay Navigator team