Last month the Southern District Health Board (DHB) and WellSouth Primary Health Network announced the first 16 general practices to become Health Care Homes, which promote access to urgent and unplanned care, provide more preventive care and better support of people with complex needs. It also provided
a framework for continuous improvement and business efficiency.
Dunedin’s Amity Health Centre, the Queenstown Medical Centre, Gore Health Centre, and Gore Medical Centre are the first in the region to join the programme. They would be followed by seven more later this year in Dunedin, Invercargill, Cromwell and Wanaka.
The programme was launched in Queenstown last Wednesday and was attended by Dr Jeff Lowe, of the Karori Medical Centre in Wellington.
Dr Lowe, a GP at the centre for 28 years, said it became a Health Care Home in 2016.
The "most transformative" aspect was the patient portal technology which provided alternative ways for patients to interact with their doctors and nurses, and saved time and money.
The portal allowed patients to book appointments, order prescriptions, view their medical records, results and letters from specialists online.
It also provided a secure email system through which they could contact their doctor directly with any concerns they had and receive advice without necessarily having to attend the medical centre.
Dr Lowe said that system had freed up time for his doctors and created more appointment time "on an already crowded schedule".
"It can be challenging to change the model of care," he said.
"Initially, while it seems a challenge, actually it’s helping return some of the joy of being a GP.
"There are increasing demands on our time. Certainly a lot of GPs in the work force are feeling burnt out."
Health Care Home leader Stuart Barson said the new system for patients was not dissimilar to the changes made in recent years to booking and checking-in for flights, which was now a process largely self-managed using technology.
From a medical point of view, the new systems would give doctors time to consider more complex patients.
Mr Barson said all the medical centres in the first tranche were already using aspects of the Health Care Home model, but it provided a framework "they don’t have to invent themselves".
"If you think of the whole district, you want the practices to go first to be really successful. There are 80-something practices, and they’ll learn from the ones that go first."
