Hui-tanguru | February

Haere mai and welcome to our first monthly newsletter. We are wanting to increase our means and methods of communicating with our patients as we strive to achieve our mission statement of “Well-being, together | Waiora, tahi”.

General practice, and health, is often a “moveable feast” – our environment is constantly changing. This is challenging for our patients and our team – but always be assured our overarching priority is to provide you with quality, patient-centre care.
As practice manager, my door and telephone are always open – if you would like to discuss any aspect of your health care at Travis Medical Centre please feel free to contact me.

Travis Team … We have an outstanding and dedicated team at Travis Medical Centre – many of whom I am sure you have known for quite a number of years. February has seen some changes to our team.

We farewelled Dr Jennifer Walker as she commenced her maternity leave; we are all excitedly waiting to hear Jen’s wonderful baby news and like you, wish her all the very best. Jen will be back on deck in 2022.

Providing locum care to Jen’s patients is the brilliant Sue Price. Sue is a nurse practitioner and we are absolutely rapt to have her as part of our team.

Dr Shona Logue is our GP registrar for the first half of the year. As a teaching practice we regularly have GP registrars and student nurses on our team. While we always recommend you see your own GP, there may be occasions when you will see Shona if your own GP has no available appointments.

At the front desk there is a new welcoming face – Karen. Karen’s bright and bubbly personality is a huge asset at reception (you may have noticed it can get very busy at reception!). Medical reception is a fast-paced, busy, at times stressful and demanding role – we having a stunning reception team who have many years experience. Please always remember our reception team are the messengers – if you have any aspect of your care that you want to discuss please direct that communication to me. We have a zero tolerance approach to any rudeness to our reception team – it will not be tolerated.

Gena returns to the fold as our much-respected social worker. It is great having Gena back, having a social worker in general practice is an incredible asset and we are pleased we are able to provide this service for our patients.

February also sees us employ a graduate nurse, Adi. Adi starts with us on 22nd February and will be supported by our expert nursing team – Sue, Shelley and Nicky. Adi will work alongside Sue, Shelley and Nicky as she develops her nursing scope and knowledge.
So February has definitely been a huge month for us.

Heart Awareness Month … February is Heart Awareness month; the Heart Foundation website is a fabulous resource; check it out on … https://www.heartfoundation.org.nz/

Patient Fees … Just a few little housekeeping issues with regard to patient fees.
It is our preference that all consultations will be paid for on the day; therefore if any patient has money owing at the end of the month our accounting system automatically adds a $5.00 monthly administration fee to their balance.
Please also be aware if you make an appointment and do not attend and do not advise us that you won’t be able to make the appointment there will be a $20.00 DNA (Did not attend) fee added to the account.
Kirsty, our financial administrator and myself manage patient accounts for the practice.
That’s not really us (no surprises) but if it were – I’d be the dark haired one and Kirsty would be the blonde one 😊).

Patient Portal … We are rapt with the number of patients who have signed up to ConnectMed and for many they are using this tool to make appointments, order repeat prescriptions and check lab results. This is fantastic – although there are still a number of our patients who are registered but not using ConnectMed – how can we help you with this? Our administration team are happy to field questions on how to get the best out of your patient portal and also check out the tab on our website.

COVID-19 … At Travis Medical Centre, as with all medical centres, it is our primary objective to keep the practice open and functioning – so that we can continue to provide premium medical care. There are three fundamental actions which we are focusing on to support this–
Screening – if you are wanting an in-person appointment, you will be screened. Please always answer these questions honestly. No matter the answers you will be seen and cared for BUT if you answer yes to the screening questions we will need to triage you and you may be seen in our exterior cabin.
We have had times when patients have not answered yes to the respiratory screening question and we are not aware of their symptoms until they are sitting in the doctors consultation room – this puts our whole practice at risk.

We would also encourage using telephone consultations where appropriate. Please consider this as an option if you do not need to be seen in-person. Standard consultations do apply to telephone consultations.
QR Scanning – please always use your QR scanner when coming into the practice. For your convenience we have the scanning code in all of our doctors and nurses rooms as well as a number in reception.
Hand Hygiene – we have hand sanitiser in the front entrance and we know many of you are using this – thank you. Please continue to focus on robust hand hygiene protocols – it is one of your strongest lines of defence.
Face Masks – we are happy to provide a face mask for you if you wish while sitting in our reception area. Just ask one of the team.
We are developing a COVID tab on our website which will provide up-to-date information on how we are managing the practice during the various levels plus information on the vaccine.

Take care everyone – we are here for you and we are committed to your health and well-being.
Sue