About Pegasus Health

Kia atawhai ki te tangata / Care for the people

Who we are

Pegasus Health is a charitable organisation committed to improving the health outcomes for the people of Canterbury through innovation in service design and delivery, collaboration with partners and continuous improvement. Our role is to support ‘all Cantabrians leading healthy lives’, and our purpose is to ‘together make Canterbury the best place to receive and provide Primary Health care’. Our values of inclusive, connected, strive and integrity, underpinned by our guiding principle of Manaakitanga, create the fabric of our ways of being as an organisation.

Pegasus Health has a commitment to ensure that we overtly, purposefully and strategically thread equity and Te Tiriti o Waitangi through all we do and how we operate. We ensure equity is prioritised in our considerations, structures, decisions and processes so that we are able to improve the health outcomes of all of our people and communities in Canterbury.

In particular:

  • The reduction of disparities between the health of Māori and other identified groups within the population of Canterbury and the reduction of barriers to the timely access to appropriate health services;
  • The greater participation of the population of Canterbury in health-related issues through proactive consultation and communication with Communities and in keeping with the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi; and,
  • The improvement of integration and liaison between healthcare providers and others in Canterbury to ensure that health care services are coordinated around the needs of the population of Canterbury.

What we do

Pegasus Health supports General Practices and community-based health providers within Canterbury to deliver quality health care, to more than 445,000 enrolled patients.

We are an essential part of the Canterbury health system, supporting General Practice, delivering community health services, and coordinating and linking parts of the system together.

We have primary care teams that are responsive to the wellbeing needs of our patients and communities. Prioritising Māori, Pasifika and people with mental health needs is important to our work.

We deliver health care and we are proud of our approach with almost half of the Pegasus Health Team delivering a diverse range of care directly to patients.

Close to 80,000 people attended our 24 Hour Surgery in 2020. This enables the Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department to concentrate on emergencies. You can see the effect we have on reducing ED patient attendance when you consider that the ED team saw approximately 100,000 people last year.

Cantabrians have been through a lot in the last decade and we have responded by growing our community-based mental health services.

When COVID-19 arrived, we responded by establishing community-based assessment centres which, alongside General Practice, ensured people could get assessed and tested quickly.

Acute Demand service

Pegasus Health provides an acute care service that supports around 34,000 people in the community annually. As a result there are more hospital beds available for people needing surgical care, and patients don’t face repeat General Practice visit fees – yet still have access to radiology, ultrasound, ECG and blood tests. Patients received these results just as quickly as if they were in hospital.

Our whānau-friendly observation unit at the Pegasus 24 Hour Surgery provides a place for people needing to be closely monitored. This also provides significant savings across the Canterbury Health System.

Why we do it

For most people, their General Practice is the place where they will receive care most of the time. Pegasus Health recognises that General Practice cannot do it all, but has the lead role in supporting patients’ access to the health and social services they need. Our role is to work together with General Practice across the health system so that people are in control of their own health and can readily navigate access to the services they need.

How we do it

Pegasus Health networks and collaborates with other health providers alongside and on behalf of General Practice. A key initiative is our participation in and hosting of the Canterbury Clinical Network. We work closely with a range of organisations, including the Canterbury District Health Board and other alliance partners, to enable the delivery of primary health care to the community and to assist in the continuous improvement of our wider health care system.

We make connections, for example:

  • We connect with our diverse communities to build understanding (Māori; Pacific and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Health Managers)
  • We connect with people on a benefit to recognise their potential, help them get well and find meaningful work; (Here Toitū)
  • We connect communities with the support they need to work through the tragedy of suicide.

Our collaborative focus is on clinical quality, ensuring excellent and safe primary care services that are evidence-informed and free from commercial bias.

We pragmatically find ways to make things work within a complex system.

In partnership with General Practice, we have a model of clinical quality improvement that is based on peer developed and delivered education. Programmes address variations in practice and equity of outcomes, help to reduce waste, and aim for excellence and safety.

Underlying this is our understanding that health systems are complex and distributed leadership is needed if we are to effect positive change.

Pegasus Health works alongside General Practice help keep people healthy in their own community through the delivery of healthy eating and living programmes.

We help integrate the health system:

  • In Canterbury, we provide a place to meet and work in partnership to redesign the health system to make it a better place for patients and health care providers
  • We work with General Practice teams in ways that best use their skills and enable patients to receive the best care.

We use technology to digitally connect healthcare providers and patients across the whole health system (Whakarongorau Aotearoa, Electronic Request Management System, HealthOne)

Working together, we bring information from across the health system to help us understand what we need to do better and demonstrate change.

We advocate for what is right for the people and health care providers in our community.