Primary health organisation (PHO) WellSouth hopes that Covid-19 is in its rear-view mirror and that it can start to tackle other longstanding southern health problems.
The PHO held its annual meeting in Gore yesterday and chairman Doug Hill told the board that Southern primary health staff had done an incredible job during the height of the pandemic.
"The organisation has stood up in an amazing way in the past 12 months and has been tested in ways that the architects of the health system possibly thought it never would be.
"More than 50% of vaccinations were delivered in the primary care sector, and it would be fair to say without their support that the vaccination programme would not have been anywhere near as successful as it was.
"The management of Covid has ... happened almost exclusively in the primary care sector and a lot of that has been lead by us, and I want to thank the team for their amazing work."
The PHO’s annual report said that in March this year, when New Zealand moved to phase 3 in the Covid-19 response plan and rapid antigen tests were made widely available, WellSouth distributed 1 million kits in four weeks and set up more collection points (52) than any other health region.
The 70 general practices which had been involved in the Covid-19 vaccination programme was a higher participation rate than anywhere else in New Zealand.
At the peak of the vaccination drive, in August, Southern delivered more than 49,000 jabs that week, and a quarter of all the providers in the country involved in the programme were in the district.
Dunedin’s Te Kaika Health Centre was in the vanguard and on August 22 delivered 1409 vaccinations, at that point the most doses administered in one day at one site.
PHO chief executive Andrew Swanson-Dobbs said he hoped that the next year would bring a renewed focus on the staple work of primary care.
"We now need to catch upon planned care, reverse downward trends in screening and immunisation, and work on health issues which are preventable through effective primary care."
The PHO appointed two new board members, Queenstown nurse practitioner Nicky Burwood as nurses representative (replacing Amanda McCracken) and Bluff resident Keri Milne-Ihimaera as community representative.
University of Otago academic Emma Wyeth was appointed as mana whenua trustee representative, replacing Donna Matahaere-Atariki.
