Recent Media Releases included are:
8 April 2013 - Foxton Medical Centres are merging
21 March 2013 - Patients benefit from new system at Medical Centres
To view older archived Media Releases, click here.
8 April 2013
Foxton Medical Centres are merging
Foxton Family Health Centre and the Foxton Medical Centre are merging into one business this week. From the 8th of April, the merged service will be known as the Foxton Family Health Centre. This is a further step in the establishment of the Kere Kere Integrated Community Health Centre for the Foxton/Shannon district later this year.
The new merged business will be operating from both sites using the existing buildings at the Lonsdale site (corner of Park and Robinson Streets) and the ex Feltex Administration building site on Ladys Mile. The practice phone number will be 06-363-6030.
In order to make best use of the two sites the practice is changing the location of some services. From Monday 8th April all scheduled blood tests will be carried out at the Feltex site on Ladys Mile. Hours of availability will be 8 30 AM – 12 30 PM. No appointment is necessary however anyone may book an appointment through the practice reception. Patients will be told which site to go to when they book their appointments.
Dr Nagoor wishes to inform his patients that from 22nd April he will be practising from the Lonsdale site, on the corner of Park and Robinson Streets. Dr Nagoor will be working Monday to Thursday and will join the other Practice General Practitioners who are already practising from the Lonsdale site.
Foxton Family Health wishes to remind everyone that the flu vaccine is now available. Please phone the practice for an appointment to ensure you have the best possible protection from influenza before the winter begins.
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21 March 2013
Patients benefit from new system at Medical Centres
Palmerston North GP and Chair of the local Primary Health Care Clinical Board Dr David Ayling is singing the praises of a new system the PHO is rolling out to most Medical Centres in the MidCentral region over the next few weeks. The “Patient dashboard” system places a summary of all the outstanding health issues for a patient or their dependent children onto the GP or Nurse’s computer screen so that it can be easily seen and dealt with in a consultation.
Any outstanding issues such as asking if the patient wants a free influenza vaccination, children’s vaccinations, completing heart health checks, overdue eye screening or annual reviews for diabetes, breast or cervical cancer screening, or completing required patient information on tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption for example have a red box next to them which the clinician can click on and then complete the required information, which then turns that box green.
“The great thing is that the system does all the coding for us and we don’t need to remember what code to use to get it in the right place in our systems for reporting against the Government health targets,” said Dr Ayling. “The Government health targets include targets for cardiovascular risk assessment. This is because heart disease is the number one cause of early death in New Zealand. The health targets also include measures for Doctors and Nurses providing advice and support to smokers to quit. Tobacco is also a big cause of premature death for us in MidCentral, so we are also keen to make sure we meet this target.”
Patients are intrigued with the new system. “It’s great to have the Nurse reminded to ask me everything they need to know, and also to follow up on our kids immunisations when we come in for a consultation,” said a patient at 169 Medical, Lilly Anderson. “I was just as pleased as the nurse was to see all our boxes on the computer chart turn green. The GP was very complementary on the fact that we had no red boxes as a family. “That’s really great,” Dr Ayling said – “it makes our job much easier now.”
“The patient dashboard system has been installed in a number of DHBs now, and it would make sense for this system to be a standard application across the country. All the GPs who have used it so far are really impressed with it,” said Dr Ayling.
“MidCentral DHB is currently the leading DHB for Childhood Immunisations. However we have some work to do to meet the Government Health targets for Cardiovascular (Heart) disease, influenza vaccinations for at risk people, and providing brief advice to smokers to quit,” said Dr Ayling. “This new system will certainly help us all move towards the Government health targets.”
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