Turanganui Primary Heath Organisation is celebrating its 60th edition of The PHOnetic this month amidst a flurry of service development and further expansion at the region’s biggest PHO. 

Board member and Pinnacle Chief Executive John Macaskill-Smith expressed his compliments as the new PHOnetic and supporting www.tpho.org.nz  website went live.

“Congratulations to Turanganui Primary Health Organisation. Your PHO has always shown itself to have a vigorous approach to innovation around service delivery and responding to local challenges. It is no surprise to me that the organisation has now added an inspired creative edge to the way it communicates with its own providers and the wider health sector.”

PHOnetic editor Hayley Redpath says The PHOnetic e-zine was born out of Turanganui PHO’s desire to have more contact with its own providers, while offering a window into primary health for the rest of the health sector. 

“Back in 2006 when the PHO launched The PHOnetic , the Board wanted to improve the flow of information about its activities for its own general practice and Turanga Health staff.”

Hayley says the Board wanted to be more transparent and accountable, and agreed to take the unusual step of distributing the e-zine to the wider local health sector. It wasn’t about having a soapbox, or being vocal and prominent on every health issue, she says. 

“Instead the PHO wanted its colleagues in the health sector, its external stakeholders, to understand it and its decisions.”

When the first edition was emailed out in 2006 there were just over 200 recipients, the PHO funded six Service to Improve Access projects, and channelled around $3, 879, 228 into reducing the cost of visits to the doctor.

Now, three years later, the PHO funds six Service to Improve Access projects, four programmes under the HealthRight banner, and channels around $4,598,758 into reducing the cost of visits to the doctor. It employs a nurse practitioner, two mental health clinical staff, a medical advisor, a social worker and a lifestyle coordinator to support the aforementioned programmes.  The PHOnetic enjoys a distribution list of 300. 

John Macaskill-Smith says Turanganui PHO’s growing structure reflects the varying needs and priorities of its enrolled population.

“You have got the right recipe for this area and everyone works closely together. It’s an organisation that is robust and brave enough now to pause now and then and review its own direction.”

“I think the recent review of the HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle programme is a good example of that”.

Hayley said the 60th edition of The PHOnetic will entice readers old and new. To mark the achievement readers will be able to enter The PHOnetic Getaway Prize Draw. Win two night’s accommodation at the exclusive Rangimarie Homestay, Anaura Bay, with breakfast, evening meals and some petrol included, just by confirming your subscriber status. 

“Happy reading and good luck!”

The new PHOnetic and website were designed by Draggnett Design of Gisborne and built by Web Partners of Auckland.

APOLOGIES to those who received The PHOnetic on Wednesday 1 April a multitude of times. The error occurred as a result of faulty spam filters at Web Partners' Auckland base and the problem has now been fixed. In hindsight, perhaps choosing April Fool's Day to relaunch The PHOnetic, was a bad decision!

Turanganui Primary Health Organisation enrolments ebb and flow but it’s a concern as to where around 400 patients have gone over the past four years, says Chief Executive Keriana Brooking. 

Keriana’s reflections follow release of the Pinnacle Group Limited report Changing Faces: Patient Mobility which examines patient mobility and its effects on primary health organisations. 

Keriana says the population of a practice will influence change in several ways and that’s why she is interested in the most recent findings.

The report shows that on average, 2,620 new patients have been enrolled in the PHO every year in the past four years (8% of patients). 

“But on the other hand, and of interest to Keriana, a slightly higher percentage, 9.3% or 3020 patients, have dropped annually from the practice age-sex registers over the past four years. These include patients who have deceased, moved out of the district or are still living in the same district but have changed providers/ no longer have a provider. 

Although it is not possible to ascertain what proportion of these patients fall in the last category, the worst case scenario is that there could be many patients out there who are not on any medical centre’s books. Of course changes to enrolment figures will affect the planning and funding for the PHO, but it’s the consequences for the hard-to-reach patients which are most alarming.”

Keriana says it can be assumed that many unregistered patients are unlikely to become registered unless forced to do so because of severe illness or accident. On the positive, in this district, where the population is decreasing, general practitioners and medical centres should be in a position to accept new enrolments, she said. 

Keriana says she has discussed the questions raised by the report with the Board and will continue to monitor the trends.