Reimagining Health Together

+ Targeted local approach to vaccinating whānau

A one size fits all approach does not work in many situations, especially healthcare. Things like language, location, time and unfamiliarity can be a barrier for whānau trying to access healthcare.

This is why a partnership was formed between trusted Māori providers, Taumata Kōrero and Te Pae Herenga o Tāmaki, with ProCare. This partnership aimed to break down barriers and enter a data sharing agreement to reach vulnerable whānau and get them vaccinated against COVID-19.

Chief Executive of Papakura Marae and member of Taumata Kōrero, Tony Kake noted the efficiency and effectiveness of working together.

“The key thing here is working together locally to achieve vaccination one town at a time – Papakura then Manurewa – we’ll all have our turn. This data is accurate to a household level – we will text, phone, knock on doors to confirm if whānau want a vaccination – if they do, we’ll do it. “

Partnerships allow the collective to build trust with the community and other providers, increase transparency and unite for a shared common outcome.

The data shared not only included COVID-19 vaccination status but was also risk stratified, meaning it identified those who also have underlying health conditions which might put them at increased risk of severe complications from COVID, such as those with heart disease.

“We wanted to ensure as organisations are all working together to reach out to as many whānau as possible, as quickly as possible, to provide COVID-19 vaccination and any other support that is required. Sharing Māori vaccination data, especially that which prioritises those most at risk, really helped us put effort into helping the right people. We know this has the potential to save lives,” said Mihi Blair, ProCare’s Kaiwhakahaere Māori.

The Māori vaccination data was shared following approval from ProCare Clinical Governance Committee together with their respective general practices. The data does not include someone’s full medical history, only their COVID-19 vaccination status, which is stratified for other underlying health conditions to ensure those most at risk can be prioritised.

+ Papatoetoe Locality – Forming a locality and how a locality can benefit a community

From Left to Right: Dr Karl Cole (Papatoetoe Family Doctors) Dr Randall Sturm (Hunters Corner Medical Centre) and Dr Peter Cameron (Your Health Centre)

When you want to make a difference at the top of the cliff, not just the bottom, then that requires everyone who delivers primary or community health care to come together in order to support the health and wellbeing of their communities.

It’s an approach that puts whānau at the centre and supports the wider community too. It also saves time, money and is a more efficient use of clinical resources. You could say, it just makes sense.

This is how Dr Karl Cole (Papatoetoe Family Doctors), Dr Randall Sturm (Hunters Corner Medical Centre, and Dr Peter Cameron (Your Health Centre) came to form the Papatoetoe Collective.

Dr Randall Sturm says: “In the beginning, it was about meeting people, aiming to put a face to the name and aiming to improve the interface between primary and secondary healthcare. However, very quickly, this evolved to creating a founding document (including agreeing not to ‘poach’ each other’s patients if we were to share services). Another step we took toward better efficiencies was to start building connections with community services such as our local NGOs and WINZ.”

“With our combined patient numbers, I see a great opportunity in the future to pilot projects and programmes - inviting those with additional expertise into our practices e.g. social workers - and ensure we didn’t limit ourselves to being constrained by geography.”

“The idea when having a locality is that you need to recognise that everyone has a broad range skills and expertise, and that everyone has something different to bring to the table.”

Dr Karl Cole adds: “We realised that it’s much easier to call someone on the phone when you’ve met them in person and ask for their help or advice, and that working together is better than working alone.” He also stressed the importance of better IT infrastructure and systems (e.g. fixing generic processes where they can share and also influence decisions) to support locality work going forward.

Dr Peter Cameron shared: “General Practitioners are naturally siloed. We are all extremely busy down our individual ‘mineshafts’ so getting together is beneficial in a whole number of ways. We’ve already found that the sharing of our individual experiences has already led to improvements in delivery of care such as providing Covid vaccinations for each other’s patients. We have been able to vaccinate more people, more quickly and in an easier manner than had we tried to go it alone. That’s the beauty of a locality.”

Dr Peter Cameron sums a locality up nicely by saying: “It’s about approaching working in a different way in order to improve the health and wellbeing of a locality’s wider community. One of the added advantages of working in this way is that we can extend beyond personal healthcare into community health issues such as the excessive consumption of sugar, housing, social issues – issues we would never have time to tackle on our own.”

+ Turuki Health – The benefits of partnerships and new ways of innovative working to reach the community

Te Puea Winiata

Chief Executive of Turuki Health Care, a Māori health provider in South Auckland.

Turuki Health has been operating for the best part of 30 years in South Auckland, with an enrolled population of around 13,000 whānau across South Auckland and Panmure. Their job is to provide whānau-based health, wellness and social services to their patients and the people of South Auckland.

When trying to tautoko (support) some of Tāmaki Makaurau’s hardest to reach population with their healthcare requirement, Turuki knows that they can’t achieve their goals alone and that by having a network of providers that can support each other and achieve the mahi together, they are more likely to succeed and provide the best care possible for whānau.

Te Puea Winiata, CEO of Turuki Healthcare says: “For us, we go where the need is and we go with our partners; and hopefully we can be responsive and relevant to the needs of whānau, so that we can be a strong voice for them.

“It’s about having a can-do attitude, looking for the gaps such as rural communities and working in those spaces. “It’s about building trust and working in the way that whānau want services delivered and making sure no one gets left behind,” she continues

“However, most importantly, it’s about maintaining a relational approach. We know we can’t do it alone. So, we help someone else, and that help comes back to us in working with our whānau. We try and understand what our partners want to achieve for their whānau, and we try see the kaupapa through their eyes in order to achieve the best outcomes for whānau,” she concludes.

+ Te Ora Puāwai - Thriving Life. We are shifting the paradigm from ‘professionals know best’ to ‘customers know best'

Te Ora Puāwai, an Otara collective funded by Counties Manukau Health, is a conceptual locality that plans to go live in 2022.

The collective is made up with the following organisations: Disability Connect,Health Promotion Forum, Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA, Otara Family Christian Health Centre,Otara Health Charitable Trust, ProCare, The Heart Foundation, ZOOM Pharmacy.

The collective aims to work with consumers to co-design an improved model of care for long term conditions and have proposed the following theory of change:

Click here to see A Better Way 2021 video on the facebook page for Te Ora Puāwai

+ Reimagining Health Hui - Video presentation: Localities - Concept framework

Localities - concept framework

Presented on 18 October 2021 by Paul Roseman, General Manager of Strategic Development at ProCare.

+ Reimagining Health Hui - Presentation slides and video from the Papatoetoe locality

Papatoetoe practices working together - Collaborating to improve community health outcomes.

Presented on 18 October 2021 by Dr Karl Cole (Papatoetoe Family Doctors), Dr Randall Sturm (Hunters Corner Medical Centre), and Dr Peter Cameron (You Health Centre).

+ Reimagining Health Hui - Presentation slides and video from Te Ora Puāwai (an Otara Collective)

Te Ora Puāwai, an Otara Collective

Presented on 18 October 2021 by Mark Simiona