Staff Reporter
Auckland, August 25, 2021
Primary teams across New Zealand have swung into action with commitment and resilience to carry out tens of thousands of Covid-19 vaccines and tests while also delivering ongoing care to their patients remotely over the past week, leading General Practitioners have said.
A snapshot of the work initiated in Level 4 ranges from redeploying staff overnight, standing up full testing centres in a few hours and establishing a paperless testing system and administering vaccines to homeless people and in cars, Marae and Churches.
Increasing workload
General Practice New Zealand (GPNZ) Chairman and Karori GP Dr Jeff Lowe said that some practices were estimating that workload has more than doubled as they manage strict infection control and keep up to date with changing clinical advice on top of testing, administering vaccines and the usual work of general practice.
“I was impressed by how well we adapted to delivering care during previous lockdowns, but in this Delta outbreak our people have gone above and beyond. The past experience helped us prepare, but to be able to ramp up our vaccine rollout on top of the huge surge in swabbing while providing regular care to our patients by phone, video and in-person has been truly exceptional,” he said.
Red and Green Streams
Practices are splitting their staff into completely separate ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ streams with Red Teams focusing on work with patients who may be Covid Positive, including testing, while Green Teams manage the remainder of the work. Staff in separate teams don’t mix at any time and staff remain in their team throughout a shift to avoid the risk of spreading the virus.
Chair of the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network Chairman and Whangamata GP Dr Fiona Bolden said that rural practices have been outstanding in responding to the needs of their communities, despite many having limited staff.
Her practice has been conducting Covid-19 tests and delivering vaccinations over the weekend to manage their busy day to day running of the practice.
“We divided our team into two instantly when we went into Alert level 4. This leaves our practice and other rural practices very thin on the ground. We have limited staff and hence, much business as usual, and we want to avoid cross-contamination. Our priority is to get as much of the population here vaccinated at least with one vaccination if possible,” she said.
Impressive performance
Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners President and Wellington GP Dr Samantha Murton, said, “We are impressed but not surprised at the way primary care has stepped up to protect the community, and with the change in timings between doses extended to six weeks, the College has been advocating for priority vaccines for Maori and Pasifika.
“It is a fundamental equity issue to vaccinate these communities now because the effects of Covid-19 will be more damaging to them than for other groups. Even one dose of the vaccine gives a better chance at fighting Covid-19 and will also mean that we are preventing the possible overwhelm of the health system.”
Pacifica focus
In Auckland, at the centre of the current cluster, there is a particular focus on meeting the needs of the Pacific community, including a major push to get vaccines out to all those who are eligible.
ProCare Health Clinical Director and GP Dr Allan Moffitt said that it is important to go to the people and work in partnership with community leaders.
“What we are seeing right now is that all the parts of our health system come together with local services and local people to give us the best chance of beating this outbreak,” he said.
