Significant changes are underway in the health system, driven by the experiences of the
COVID-19 response and the recent recommendations of the Immunisation Taskforce.
These changes range from simple to complex and will have an impact on the way Medical Officers of Health authorise vaccinators in their regions.

Te Hiringa Mahara, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, is investigating access to mental health and addiction services. They want to understand the factors that impact people’s access to mental health and addiction services as well as what is contributing to changes in recent service use volumes.

Te Whatu Ora is developing improvements to its Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment (CVDRA) and Heart Health Plan risk management services to support decision making and care planning, and to strengthen the way heart health risk is discussed with patients. They are looking for people aged between 30‒74 years, who are at risk of but do not have cardiovascular disease and are of Māori, Pacific or South Asian origin.

Practice Plus is seeking to enhance consumer engagement and experience through the promotion of equity and ensuring that services are organised and delivered at a high quality. An opportunity has arisen for a GP, nurse or practice manager, to join the Practice Plus service user committee.

Pinnacle has welcomed Dr Tony Muller as the new primary care liaison psychiatrist.

The Hospice Taranaki palliative community care team provides a high standard of care for patient and whānau to help adjust to the changes in lifestyle caused by illness. Hospice Taranaki palliative care will be available on eReferral from 8 November 2023.

Anglesea Clinic Urgent Care is currently experiencing severe staffing shortages. Despite the team’s best efforts, they have been unable to fill vacancies and do not have enough doctors to be clinically safe at all times. They may at times have to re-direct patients. Please consider letting patients know they can check the Anglesea Urgent Care Facebook page, or phone ahead, to check availability before attending.

Te Whatu Ora Data & Digital team has identified an error with the Regional Clinical Portal (rCP), a shared platform used to varying degrees by all hospitals within the Te Manawa Taki region. From Friday, 13 October, documents and attachments which have been uploaded to the portal are being queued but not written to the database. This means they are not lost, but cannot be accessed and read by our clinicians and support staff. All older documents remain accessible as normal.

GPNZ is hosting a three-part webinar series on inbox management for general practice. Please note you need to register for each webinar in the series. Webinars will be recorded and available on the GPNZ website for those who can’t make the live sessions.

An important part of the Te Whatu Ora Waikato GPL team's role is to receive complaints and/or issues from GPs. A dedicated email address for this service, GP_Referrals@waikatodhb.health.nz, is monitored daily and dealt with by the assigned team member. In order to avoid important issues being lost, please use this dedicated address to raise any concerns or issues.