From
the Chair
Disability resource
developed in the Eastern
Bay shared nationwide
Sally Webb - Chair, Bay of Plenty District Health Board
In this issue of Health Matters, we are
sharing with you our draft Māori Health
Strategy Te Toi Ahorangi 2030.
In the December 2018 Ministerial Letter of
Expectations for all District Health Boards
the Minister said, ‘’Achieving equity within
the New Zealand Health system underpins all
of my priorities. Maori as a population group
experience the poorest health outcomes.
As you consider equity within your district,
there needs to be explicit focus on achieving
equity for Maori across their life course.”
Te Toi Ahorangi provides our local health
system and tangata whenua with a clear
direction for improving Māori health over
the next decade. As Albert Einstein said “We
cannot solve our problems with the same
thinking we used when we created them.”
The vision of Te Toi Ahorangi asks us to
embark on a diff erent journey together
and this will take commitment and the
courage to change what we do and how we
do it. If we, here in the Bay of Plenty, are
going to achieve the Bay of Plenty District
Health Board’s vision of Healthy, thriving
communities, Kia Momoho Te Hāpori
ōranga we must uphold the aspirations of Te
Toi Ahorangi so tangata whenua can fl ourish.
New clinic brings
better support for people
taking multiple meds
Geriatrician Dr Vicky Henstridge (left)
and Pharmacist Adele Harrex at the new
Outpatient Clinic providing better support
for people taking multiple medications for
multiple health conditions.
Older people taking multiple medications
for multiple health conditions can talk to a
pharmacist and if needed be assessed by a
Geriatrician at a new Outpatient Clinic at
Tauranga Hospital.
For many older people, polypharmacy (taking
multiple medications for multiple conditions) is
common. In New Zealand 35 percent of people
aged 65+ are prescribed fi ve or more medications,
and 8 percent of those aged 85+ are taking 11 or
more medications at one time.
More details about the draft Māori Health
Strategy and a schedule of public hui are
on the following pages. We are really keen
to get people involved in understanding
the aspirations and involved in making a
diff erence for all people in the Bay of Plenty.
Supporting people to get well, stay well
and be well is at the heart of our health
service. As you are no doubt aware, there is
a measles outbreak in Canterbury and there
have been confi rmed cases in the North
Island as well. This is an avoidable disease
that can have catastrophic outcomes. Just
last week I was reading a Facebook article
by children’s author Roald Dahl about how
his seven you old daughter caught measles
and died from complications in 1962. Please
check your immunisation status and that
of your children. Immunisation is our best
protection.
Naku te rourou nau te rourou
ka ora ai te iwi
With your basket and my basket
the people will live
Sally Webb
“Taking multiple medications may be benefi cial
for quality of life and staying well, as long as this
is carefully managed. Research shows 58 percent
of people on fi ve or more medications will suff er
an adverse side eff ect. There’s also a higher risk of
falls and other age related conditions that can lead
to hospitalisation.
“Our new Outpatient Clinic allows people to bring
along family or friends and spend up to an hour
with a pharmacist discussing all their medications,
prescribed and non-prescribed, their benefi ts,
potential side eff ects and possible changes. At
the same time, they can be seen by a Geriatrician
who may add to the recommendations, arrange
appropriate investigations or further review,” says
BOPDHB Geriatrician Dr Vicky Henstridge.
The Bay of Plenty has a high and growing
population of older adults. In the Western Bay
people can access specialist pharmacist advice
and support about their medications
through Medwise.
“The Outpatient Clinic’s designed to complement
those existing services. People do have their
medications reviewed by their GP, often in
collaboration with the excellent Medwise service.
However, as our population ages, the need for
reviews is increasing, and so too is the need for
input from a Geriatrician.”
Although the clinic is in its early phase and
processes are still being fi ne-tuned, Vicky says
ultimately the clinic’s been set up to support
older people to stay well and improve their
quality of life.
She says the BOPDHB will be monitoring the
clinic’s progress and depending on its success,
we may look at developing a similar clinic at the
Outpatients Department at Whakatāne Hospital.
For further information including referral criteria
please contact [email protected]
Cheryl Shearer (centre) surrounded by those who
contributed to the teaching resource and their families.
A teaching resource developed at the
Bay of Plenty District Health Board
designed to improve the way health
staff communicate with patients living
with disabilities, is being profi led by the
Health Quality & Safety Commission,
and shared nationwide.
Established in 2010, the Commission
works across the health and disability
sector to improve the quality and safety of
services for all people.
The teaching resource titled Do you
really see me or just my disability? tells
the stories of seven Bay of Plenty people
living with disabilities (tāngata whaikaha).
The stories are shared from their own
perspective, and in the case of two who
have passed away, their families.
Whakatāne based BOPDHB Quality
and Patient Safety Co-ordinator Cheryl
Shearer says she chose to develop this
resource after dealing with patients and
families with concerns about their medical
care and how staff communication
impacted on their patient journey.
“There are touchpoints in every patient’s
journey that have an impact on how we as
health staff make them feel. The information
provided by these people in this resource
has identifi ed themes that we can all
learn from.
“These people have very diff erent life
experiences but what ties their stories
together is a desire to be treated
with dignity and respect. Seemingly
simple things like greeting a person and
asking them if they need assistance, before
doing anything else, are really important.”
Dr Chris Walsh, Director of Partners in
Care at the Commission says that listening
to patients’ experiences of care helps us
to understand where improvements can
be made.
“We strive for a world-class and patient-
centred health care and disability support
system in New Zealand. Listening to
the patient experience and using patient
stories to inform improvements, is a key
part of this.”
You can view the resource online by
searching Do you really see me or
just my disability at www.hqsc.govt.nz
Protected together
- make sure you
and your family are
immune to measles
“With recent cases of measles in
New Zealand, now is a very good time
to check that you and your whānau
are up to date with immunisations and
immune to measles,” says Dr Neil de
Wet, Medical Offi cer of Health for
Toi Te Ora Public Health.
People born before 1969 are considered to
be immune because measles used to be quite
common, but anyone born from 1969 onwards
who is unsure if they have been immunised
should check with their doctor. “Contact your
family doctor or practice nurse if you or your
child needs to be immunised – it’s never too
late to catch up,” says Dr de Wet.
The vaccine that protects against measles
is the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella)
vaccine. “The MMR provides very eff ective
protection against measles and is completely
free for children and adults. MMR is given in
two doses, usually at 15 months and then four
years of age, as part of the routine childhood
immunisations but can be given later to anyone
who has missed these vaccinations,” says
Dr de Wet.
Measles is highly infectious and is spread from
person to person through the air by breathing,
sneezing or coughing. Just being in the same
Protected together – measles is very
contagious, so we protect one another
when we get immunised. Make sure you
are immune to measles and so protect you,
your whānau and your community.
room as someone with measles can lead to
infection if you are not immune.
“The fi rst early symptoms of measles are fever,
runny nose, sore red eyes and cough. After
three to fi ve days a red, blotchy rash appears on
the face and head and then spreads down the
body,” says Dr de Wet. Measles can be serious
with around one in ten people who get measles
needing to be hospitalised.
“If you think you or someone in your
family may have measles, stay at home and
phone your doctor so that they can make
arrangements to see you and assess you
safely and without infecting other people, or
call Healthline on 0800 611 116 for advice,”
advises Dr de Wet.
For more information about measles
visit the Toi Te Ora Public Health website
at: www.toiteora.govt.nz/measles