Monday Pānui 15 July 2024

In today’s Pānui	Funding uplift – final decision 17 July Diabetes Learning Opportunities for GPs, Nurse Practitioners and Practice Nurses COVID-19 Technology Support Changes General Practice Podcasts
Funding uplift – final decision 17 July	The final decision for the funding uplift will be at the PSAAP meeting on 17 July. There has been a wholehearted negative response from all GPs across the country regarding the funding amount.  We will be in touch with practices to discuss increasing their fees and providing further information later in the week.
Diabetes Learning Opportunities for GPs, Nurse Practitioners and Practice Nurses	Insulin Initiation Workshops (on site at your clinic) Diabetes Nurse Specialist, Gina Bergan, will provide GPs, NPs and PNs with the skills and knowledge on how to initiate and manage insulin for type 2 diabetes patients. A workshop will be designed to meet your needs You will be provided with a take home kit with all the equipment and resources, including follow up visits if required. Auckland PHO will support the kaupapa with a $200 koha for practices wishing to undertake the training. To register or to find out more contact siobhan@aucklandpho.co.nz  Diabetes E-Learning Modules for Practice Nurses This initiative from the New Zealand Society Study of Diabetes (NZSSD) aims to upskill practice nurses with online tutorials is now available.  Enrolment and use is FREE. Go to https://learning.nzssd.org.nz/ For more information, contact Gina Bergan 0275332111
COVID-19 Technology Support Changes Message from Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ	A number of COVID technology products were developed to support the health system response during the course of the pandemic. This enabled: the management of COVID-19 models of care and delivery of appropriate and effective cross-sector health care services. the collation of COVID-19 data and information, to enable the public health and clinical management of individuals and the management of outbreaks in high-risk settings. Health NZ continues to transition its health response to COVID-19, so it is managed in a similar way to other communicable diseases.  Health NZ has reviewed the use of the COVID-19 technology products and any potential impact of changes to the use of these technologies on the healthcare sector and delivery of health care to New Zealanders. There are two changes for technology that has been available for Primary Care (GPs and Urgent Care): The COVID-19 Clinical Care Module (CCCM): The CCCM was designed for primary health care providers, pharmacies, Community Hubs and hospitals to have a platform for teams to provide shared care to patients and their whānau, and to report COVID-19 cases, providing a valuable national resource of data and information to inform planning. The use of the CCCM has been steadily decreasing for some time, and with community hubs ceasing from 30 June 2024, a decision has been made to decommission the CCCM. Access to the CCCM primary healthcare providers, such as GPs and urgent care will cease, effective 1 August 2024. This will allow time to communicate this change and decommission the technology. GPs should continue to report COVID-19 cases via Healthlink as COVID remains a notifiable disease and this test result will automatically flow through to the Notifiable Disease Management System. GP Notifications As COVID-19 remains a notifiable disease, people can self-test using a RAT and we recommend people report a positive RAT result via MyHealthRecord, or by calling the assisted channel.  Once a positive result is reported, a text message is sent to the person providing information to support them to access any help and support they might need. To date, GP notifications have been in place for all self-reported positive test results.  This means, when a person reports a RAT result via MyHealthRecord, their GP receives a notification of that result in their PMS inbox. Positive COVID-19 RAT results that have been provided to GPs have not always required action from a clinician (for example that the patient isn’t eligible for antiviral medicines and do not feel unwell enough to require treatment). The technology supporting notifications to GPs is being decommissioned, effective 1 August 2024, therefore you will no longer receive notifications of self-reported RAT results. This will align COVID-19 with other ‘point of care’ tests where patients self-test and proactively contacts their healthcare provider for treatment if needed. GPs will continue to receive notifications from labs about any notifiable disease that is tested for with a PCR. The text message that a person receives when they self-report a positive RAT result has been updated and they are taken through a questionnaire to assess if they are eligible for antiviral medicines. If they are unwell or if it appears they’re eligible they are recommended to contact their healthcare provider or a participating community pharmacy. The GP will not be aware of a self-reported RAT result, so will not contact them.
General Practice Podcasts	Check out The New Zealand General Practice Podcast on Apple Podcasts. Dr Jo Scott-Jones shares the joy of general practice with colleagues through inspiring stories about what is special about being a GP plus lots of really good snippets to listen to while driving etc.

Barbara Stevens | Tumu Whakarae/CEO