Appendix 3: Patient information

Pamphlets, posters and other resources available from the Ministry of Health on the HealthEd website.

The Ministry for Primary Industries

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) leads New Zealand’s food system, ensuring the food we produce is safe and protecting the health and wellbeing of consumers. MPI is responsible for legislation covering food for sale on the New Zealand market, primary processing of animal products and official assurances related to the export of animal and plant products and the controls surrounding registration and use of agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines. MPI is the New Zealand competent authority for imports and exports of food and food-related products.

• MPI contact information
• Food safety practices in preparing and cooking a hangi: He whakatairanga i nga ahuatanga mahi mo te tunu hangi

Educate the public about safe food preparation.

• Avoid working with food when you:
  • are unwell especially with a gastro infection
  • have open skin sores, boils or abscesses.
• Clean your hands thoroughly after using the toilet or changing nappies or other incontinent products for others and before and after preparing food.
• Wash raw vegetables and fruits thoroughly before juicing them or eating them fresh.
• Cook meat thoroughly before eating.
• Cook eggs and egg products properly. Avoid eating raw, incompletely cooked eggs or using dirty or cracked eggs.
• Keep hot food hot between cooking and eating it.
• Wash hands, utensils and chopping boards in hot, soapy water after handling uncooked food.
• Keep raw meat, poultry and fish separate from and below other foodstuffs so that any raw meat juice does not contaminate other foods stuffs especially ready-to-eat foods.
• Cover all stored food.
• Cover and put uneaten, cooked food in the refrigerator within 1 hour of cooking.
• Defrost food by placing it on the lower shelves of a refrigerator (if raw meat place on bottom shelf to avoid raw meat juice contaminating other foods) or use a microwave oven according to defrosting instructions. Avoid defrosting food at room temperature.
• Thoroughly reheat (until internally steaming or piping hot, at least 70ºC) leftover or ready-to-eat foods before eating.
• Strictly follow use-by and best-before dates on refrigerated foods.

Find out more about how to prepare and store food safely and when you need to take extra care with some types of food on the Ministry for Primary Industries website.

Patient information is especially important where medicines are recommended for people who are not ill but who have been exposed to an infectious agent.

Sources of information include the following.

• Medsafe – Information for consumers
  Consumer Medicine Information (CMI) provides useful information about medicines and contains information and advice on matters such as what the medicine is used for, how it should be taken, what side effects can result from taking the medicine, whether a person can drive or drink alcohol while taking the medicine, and what to do if a person misses a dose. However, a CMI does not contain all the available information about the medicine. Patients should ask their doctor or pharmacist if they have any questions or concerns about taking the medicine. Although pharmaceutical companies are responsible for producing CMIs, in New Zealand there are no legal requirements for them to provide consumer information. The CMIs offered on the Medsafe website have been written by pharmaceutical companies, using guidelines set by Medsafe.
• MedlinePlus
  MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health and other United States government agencies and health-related organisations. Pre-formulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and provide easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also offers extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopaedia, interactive patient tutorials and latest health news.