Tairāwhiti GPs discover the benefits of speed dating

In mid-November 2022 a group of Tairāwhiti clinicians gathered in a room at the local fishing club for a night of speed-dating – but not in the way you’re thinking.   

Their ‘dates’ were representatives from local services that support people in the community, and the evening was an educational event organised to better connect GPs and community services, for the benefit of patients and people they support. 

The event was inspired by a similar speed dating initiative for community services to get to know each other, organised by Whāngaia Ngā Pā Harakeke, the Police family harm intervention team, earlier in the year.   

Pinnacle social worker, Lana Reed, and child health nurse, Megan Holmes, attended that event and heard a Pinnacle GP comment it would be great to do something similar for local GPs to meet services, to help break down barriers to health. They agreed, and decided to make it happen.   

With a bit of brainstorming, support from the Tairāwhiti Pinnacle team to identify services, and funding from Pinnacle GPs who saw the value in the concept, Lana and Megan got the first Breaking Barriers in Health event up and running within two months.   

“We’d never done it before, so we just went for it,” says Lana. “We wanted to keep it health-focused, so that’s what we looked at to start with – would GPs refer patients to this service, is it one they might not know about?”   

“On the night there was a lot of energy in the room, people were really excited to jump straight in and have conversations. It was amazing.”

The concept was simple: around 15 GPs and nurse practitioners from five Pinnacle Tairāwhiti practices sat in the middle of the hall, and representatives from 24 different local services moved around to have a three-minute consult with each of them. Each ‘date’ was just enough time for the service representative to introduce themselves, their service and their referral pathways.  

Over three hours, every clinician was able to meet and get information about each service, which included groups providing food parcels, Kaupapa Māori services, EPOA support, medical alarms, stroke services, Alzheimer’s society, and the Police family harm team.    

Lana says some GPs and services who met for the first time were located across the road from each other, but hadn’t previously had the opportunity or time to connect.  

“We know GPs and services are so overworked, so we wanted to make it fun, quick and easy to get the ball rollling with information they need,” says Lana. “With this sort of introduction they can say ‘I know that service, I met that person and this is how they can help my patients.’ That connection is already there.”  

There was also a bingo game for the GPs, who were provided with a card to fill out that was set up like a prescription sheet, asking questions about different services. At the end of the night all completed cards were entered into the draw to win a Prezzy Card, funded by Pinnacle, that they could then donate to a service of their choice they met that night.    

“One service who received a Prezzy Card used it to have a morning tea back at their offices, where they explained the event to others in their team and carried on that connection and sharing of information,” says Lana.

Feedback from GPs who attended the event was overwhelmingly positive.   

“Several GPs said how they wanted to bring their laptop along and start making immediate referrals,” says Lana. “Seeing those responses from them was amazing.”  

“Just wanted to say what a fabulous night. Was brilliantly executed and so valuable. There are so many great services in our community and connecting us all up is brilliant.”  

“Thank you to the Pinnacle team for organising it! I've already used some of the services I found out about.”  

The services involved also praised the event, and requested another evening be organised so they could meet more clinic staff.   

“What a wonderful evening you hosted last night. The community is so very grateful to have this opportunity to engage with health practitioners and build better working relationships.”  

“A lot of the services are working with people in the community who have high, complex health needs. Being able to contact someone they know in a general practice to help sort things out for the people they support makes things a bit easier,” says Lana.  

“We had people from local services ringing us an hour before the event, wanting to come. We could do it again easily two more times with all the services who are interested.” 

Another round of the speed dating evening with services is planned, and Lana says it would be great to invite even more clinical staff, such as practice nurses, health improvement practitioners (HIPs), and clinical pharmacists.  

“People want to do it again, and we’ve also been asked to organise something similar between GPs and Te Whatu Ora staff at the hospital,” says Lana. “That one would help break barriers and make connections between primary and tertiary health care services.”  

“I hope we can do it, Breaking Barriers was a crazy event but so amazing to see the outcomes for clinicians and services, and immediate connections they made.”