General Practice Moves Mountains To Protect Patients And Staff.

Thanks to resources provided by the Health Care Home National Collaborative and huge efforts by staff across our sector, General Practice transitioned a predicted ten-year process to tele-health services, over the course of a weekend.

This was one of the take-outs from a recent Webinar series hosted by the Collaborative with panellist’s Dr Jeff Lowe, Martin Hefford and Nicky Hart.

As part of their response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Collaborative moved fast to open telehealth and clinical triage resources support to all PHOs and practices prior to the RNZCGP college directive.

The Collaborative, with GPNZ and others is now focussed on supporting general practice sustainability and advocating for the national roll out of the Health Care Home model of care.

“Patient numbers dropped by up to 75% in the first few weeks of lockdown, leaving some practices with almost no cashflow, says Martin Hefford,” so we are working to ensure those on the front line, caring for our population are still able to pay staff and remain viable during a potentially lengthy period of time.

Martin Hefford Tū Ora Compass Health CE also commented that never had he seen such co-operation and willingness to respond to Primary Care needs from the Ministry of Health and Central Government agencies, supporting moves to safe patient practices, testing and sustainability.

“We need to acknowledge that General Practice may never look the same, which when condensed brings its own hurdles but also opens the way for a new and exciting landscape to benefit both practice teams and patient outcomes,” Nicky Hart, CEO of Feilding Health Care says.

Recent transformation work by General Practice in areas of telehealth and clinical triage are core features of the Health Care Home model says Chair of the HCH Collaborative, Mark Liddle and firmly believes the work should continue to retain and build on the significant gains made.

The Health Care Home Collaborative welcomes all PHOs and Practice Teams to register for the upcoming 23rd April 5.30-6.30pm webinar “Why Health Care Home?” Speakers include, Chair of the Collaborative, Mark Liddle, Dr Andrew Miller, Dr Nick Chamberlain and Lance Norman – sharing their collective wisdom of the benefits of this model of care.

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