Primary Care Taskforce update

Collaboration between three Waitaha | Canterbury Primary Health Organisations (PHOs), clinical leaders and the community in Waitaha Canterbury is helping address capacity pressures in primary care and strengthen the health system. By working collectively to pool expertise, and resources the Primary Care Taskforce (PCTF), can innovate and progress service improvements that support access to services and meet the needs of primary care across the region.

One initiative gaining momentum is the practices’ employment of medical student’s The toolkits developed support practices to employ medical students part time as clinical assistants to help manage general practitioners’ (GPs) clinical inboxes. The work not only eases administrative pressure but gives students valuable exposure to general practice, helping inspire the next generation of GPs. As Dr Felix, GP at Redcliffs Medical Centre, said:

“Delegating tasks like inbox management to a reliable medical student has been a huge weight off our shoulders. It lightens the workload, makes the day feel less overwhelming, and even benefits the wider nursing team. Having a structured onboarding process made it straightforward and the rewards have been well worth it.”

The PCTF is also in full swing with Improving GPs’ access to professional wellbeing supports and supervision project. This includes working with the Royal New Zealand College of GPs to deliver and evaluate a pilot of group supervision for General Practice Education Programme Year Two registrars, and developing a toolkit to help GPs navigate to wellbeing supports that meet their current needs. Both aim to strengthen retention and job satisfaction by ensuring GPs can access the right support at the right time.

These initiatives are just part of the mahi under way to strengthen primary care.