Challenging norms to meet community healthcare needs

A hugely successful health event held in Tokoroa has shown how changing the way families, communities and healthcare providers interact can lead to better health outcomes for people.

The free event, held at Tokoroa Hospital on 9 March, offered many different types of health review all in one space—including eye and cataract screenings, childhood vaccinations, MMR and COVID-19 boosters, cervical screenings, counselling and maternal health services.

Akarere Henry, Chief Executive of event organiser South Waikato Pacific Islands Community Services, says that the event addressed one of the primary issues that people in smaller communities face with healthcare: access.

““We were able to provide so many services all at once, in a welcoming, safe and lively space for families,” says Akarere. “Everyone in the family could be assessed at the same time, there was food available and music playing, and activities for the little ones—people had a real sense of belonging.”

Akarere says it is key to challenge norms, and change the way we do things to meet the needs of the communities we serve.

“Doing things this way was a real change for many of the clinicians who attended, but their willingness to allow things to happen differently was just incredible—all the areas of safety and privacy were retained but they embraced the different style and way of working.

“It was such a beautiful demonstration of primary and secondary health services working together. If someone was identified as needing further intervention in the outpatient clinics, we were able to refer them to the next step right away, or even carry out the treatment they needed.”

The outcomes were significant. “This was life-changing for some people,” says Akarere. “Just one example was the cataract screening, where we were able to cut down the timeframe for cataract interventions by five months, just by having primary and secondary services available at the same time.

“It’s all about restoring people’s mana and quality of life. And we’ve proved with this event that we can do that, by doing things differently, by listening to our communities and meeting their needs in the best way for them.”

The figures:

• 600 people attended
• 48 vaccinations administered:
  • 31 COVID-19 boosters
  • 3 MMR vaccinations
  • 15 childhood vaccinations (3 vaccines given to 5 individuals)
• 19 GP consults
  • 7 people needed some kind of surgical intervention, including 2 people referred for gallbladder surgery
• 82 eye care screenings
  • 5x referred to clinic - 3 for cataracts, 2 for other eye disease
  • A total of 18 people seen in clinic, 15 pre-assessed for cataract surgery within 2-3 months
• 37 cervical screenings
• 18 registrations for the bowel screening programme
• 5 bookings and referrals for the breast screening programme
• 36 enrolments in the Stop Smoking programme
• 103 hauora checks by the National Hauora Coalition
  • 57 people had high blood pressure
  • 1 person referred to Tokoroa Emergency Department for triage
  • 18 people referred with high-level need for follow-up
  • 66 people referred with intermediate level need for follow-up
  • 4 people were not enrolled with primary care
• 115 Whānau Ora packs given to families

Provider list:

• South Waikato Pacific Islands Community Services (SWPICS) – Health and wellbeing services with a focus on vaccinations, cervical screening and healthy homes.
• Braemar Charitable Trust – Dermatology Team and Surgical Team
• Te Whetū Oranga Health – Childhood vaccinations
• National Hauora Coalition – GP and nurse-led health checks
• Te Whatu Ora – Ophthalmology Department, Breast Screening and Bowel Screening
• Pinnacle Health PHO – Tokoroa Medical Centre, Primary Mental Health and Stop Smoking
• Hato Hone St John – Health and career promotion
• Raukawa Charitable Trust – Whānau Ora service