5 minute read
Chief Executive Officer’s Report
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER LINDSEY WEBBER It is a privilege to present this year’s annual report, and to look back on the collective achievements of our network and the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation as a whole. It is fair to say the past year has been one of enormous change, some of it planned and some of it an extension of the unpredictability we all face working in health during a global pandemic.
COVID-19 and the arrival of the Delta variant has continued to impact the way we deliver services. General Practices, our iwi partners and the entire PHO team must be commended for their unified health response under the pressure of another snap national lockdown in August. For the second time in just over a year, teams were mobilised to support the changing needs of our practices and population. Traditional models were turned on their head and we saw the return of virtual consultations, with practices triaging patients over the phone.
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To support the outreach effort our Iwi partners, Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāti Ranginui, pulled out all the stops to engage with Māori communities closer to their homes. COVID-19 vaccination and swabbing teams operated drive-through services at targeted pop-up sites, scaling them up at short notice to meet the community need. The PHO’s nurse leaders provided training to boost the vaccinator workforce in kaupapa Māori mobile clinics and at the Port of Tauranga where Ngāti Ranginui led the COVID-19 vaccination programme of border workers earlier in the year. On-site surveillance testing was also a critical service delivered at the Port and we’re very grateful to the PHO nurses, Public Health nurses, and kaiāwhina (support workers) from Te Runganga o Ngāti Ranginui, as well as Toi Ohomai students who were trained to carry out testing.
The collective mahi has been a true demonstration of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga that have become hallmarks of our network’s service delivery in the Bay of Plenty.
General Practices have also been actively involved in the vaccination rollout across Tauranga Moana and Whakatāne. In addition to the tireless work they have done to administer the COVID-19 vaccine, we should never underestimate the important role that clinicians provide in educating our population about the Pfizer vacccine’s safety and effectiveness. Thank you to our incredible GP and nursing teams for having those trusted, one-on-one conversations with patients – it is work that has helped to accelerate our vaccination rates and, ultimately, keep more people and their whānau protected from the virus.
While we, as professionals in health, simply get on with the job of serving our community during times of crisis and immense anxiety, I think it’s important to take stock and
acknowledge how hard we work, how fast we respond, and how much our communities continue to benefit from our efforts. Managing the threat of a global pandemic is relentless and it requires resilience and fortitude. I feel proud to lead a team so committed to keeping our community safe.
Despite so many challenges this year, we’ve remained dedicated to our Health Strategy, Te Toi Huarewa, which focuses us on achieving equity of health outcomes for Māori. As part of our cultural and equity journey, we explored ways we can improve access and be more responsive to Māori whānau in General Practice, and embraced opportunities to co-design services with whānau and Iwi, to ensure they worked for Māori. Our strong proequity approach and commitment to empowering Māori whānau to make decisions about their own health will hold us in good stead in the future.
Working closely with our Iwi partners, our organisation has supported the delivery of primary care services in the Western Bay of Plenty since 2003. We have evolved significantly since then and now, in 2021, the size and makeup of our population means far more people are impacted by what we do.
I am pleased to report that in 2020-2021 the PHO has increased support to more people than ever before. Our enrolled and funded population now numbers 202,115 with people living in communities stretching from Waihī in the west to Whakatāne in the east. This number is significant in terms of the capacity it gives us to deliver existing and new services, while remaining sustainable. This is also important within the context of the Health and Disability System Review recommendations where capacity and sustainability are the foundations on which future service provision will be based.
Over the past year we have seen 2.42% growth in total enrolments with a General Practice. New enrolments at General Practice averaged 398 per month during the last year, with 16.11% of these identifying as Māori and a further 1.77% as Pasifika. Our Asian population is increasing, growing 10.21% over 12 months. Total growth has led to funding received for the enrolled population increasing by $2.55 million in the year ending 30 June 2021.
Our PHO’s population growth of 2.42% exceeds the 1.63% estimate for the Bay of Plenty region and is well above the 2020 national average of 1.31%.
Patient contacts with General Practice increased again in 2021 to 675,641 GP and Nurse visits. This represents growing engagement with General Practice by 2.2% more visits than in the previous 12 months. Of particular note, visits by Māori patients to their GP clinic increased, accounting for 13.49% of our total patient contacts.
With our focus on closing the equity gap, our network has achieved encouraging results to protect the health and wellbeing of our Māori population. Taking a whānau-first approach, our Support to Screening teams partnered with hauroa providers in environments where Māori wahine felt comfortable to engage with services and receive potentially life-saving smears. By 30 June 2021, the PHO had reached 5456 or 70% of eligible Māori women. Child immunisations have remained a focus, with progress continuing on timely vaccination of eight-month-olds. During the reporting year, we immunised 79% of eligible Māori children and continue to work diligently with stakeholders to improve our performance.
We undertook a range of significant projects with our network partners, including Te Āhunga Whānau, a 12-month pilot project involving five practices in the Western Bay of Plenty and two in the East. New mobile nursing and kaiāwhina teams are working with Māori patients living with long-term health conditions to help them re-connect with General Practice.
General Practices participating in our PHO’s Health Care Home project have been co-designing services to enhance patient experience and engagement, with a focus on equity intrinsic to much of this work. Our PHO is also harnessing the power of data to give us valuable insights to support better care for patients.
Once again, the year has demonstrated that there is no standing still in health, but work to date on building clinical leadership, strengthening our relationships with health providers across the network and optimising our organisation’s efficiencies ensures we will remain fit for purpose in a changing health system.
Nāku noa, nā,
LINDSEY WEBBER
