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You are here: Home » News » ePulse » ePulse Archives » ePulse Archives 2008 » ePulse V10 number 18

• It's meeting week in Welly
• RNZCGP General Practice Education Convention - FULL HOUSE
• Make your mark early

• New cervical smear guidelines on way  
• DHBs are working on GP shortage
• Guidelines for natural medicine not to all tastes
• Maternity satisfaction survey
• Feedback from review of HPCA Act
• GP crisis on East Coast
• Herpes not the kiss of death
• Talking about long-term conditions

Consultation

• Pharmac 1 2 3 - migraine treatment and losartan
• Pharmac - widened access to fentanyl patches
• HISO seeks ePharmacy input
• Pharmac in the land of Herceptin

Wonca Daily Alerts

CME

Conferences

News

College

It's meeting week in Welly
The College Executive has a large agenda at its Thursday meeting this week, with a full hand of reports. Friday morning has all three standing Boards, Education, Assessment and Quality meeting under the chairmanship of College president Dr Jonathan Fox.  The Boards then break into separate components for their regular meetings, which are scheduled to continue until Saturday afternoon. Building the individual agendas for the three Boards is a logistical challenge, since they'll also be taking the opportunity to discuss items of interest to more than one Board.

Thankfully the College has three meeting rooms...and well-oiled doors.

RNZCGP General Practice Education Convention - FULL HOUSE

Opening the doors: Teaching and learning in primary care environments
23 - 24 May, James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor, Wellington.

The doors may be open, but only to those who got in before the 'full house' signs went up! The College is especially happy that attendees cover the whole continuum of GP education, including teachers of undergraduates, trainee interns, registrars and collegial supervisors of Stage 2 registrars. We'll see you there.

Make your mark early
REGISTER NOW for Conference 2008 in Queenstown. Our conference registration site has gone live, with the latest programme. It carries a total of 24 CME credits, so don't hold back.

Register now if

• You want fun
• You want your taxes to work for you
• You want 24 CME hours in one go
• You want to hear all the newest research
• You want to be part of vigorous debate
• You want time-out with old and not so old colleagues...in a fun place to bring your family!

  Conference programme convenor Hans Raetz has produced a beauty; and Queenstown and the view of the Remarkables shouldn't be half bad either. Don't delay, because some of the specials that will make this conference unique will fill quickly.

• To register: http://www.conference.co.nz/index.cfm/rnzcgp2008
• Questions: Liz.Walters@rnzcgp.org,nz

Sector

New cervical smear guidelines on way
The Ministry of Health has just announced that new guidelines for the management of women with abnormal cervical smears will be implemented from 29 September. HPV testing will be introduced into the cervical screening programme on 1 July of next year. This is just a short teaser: further info on the guidelines is due in June.

DHBs are working on GP shortage
At least two DHBs have begun taking concrete steps to deal with GP shortages in their areas. MidCentral DHB announced last week that it will inject $1.3 million over the next three years into attracting, training and retaining general practitioners. MidCentral feels it is important to let medical students and junior doctors experience primary health care firsthand if they are to seriously consider it a career choice, and they will provide allowances towards accommodation and education costs. Meanwhile Hutt Valley DHB is exploring several initiatives, among them a pilot scheme which is being discussed with the College, aimed at attracting GP senior registrars to work in primary and hospital settings. More news when we have it. In the mean time the MidCentral press release is here:

http://www.midcentraldhb.govt.nz/NewsEvents/PublicNews/Latest/GPShortage.htm

Guidelines for natural medicine not to all tastes
The Ministry of Health's new guidance document for natural health practitioners may not be everyone's cup of herbal tea. Under the 1981 Medicines Act natural therapists have specific exemptions to supply certain non-pharmaceutical medicines, so long as a consultation between the practitioner and individual occurs first. Since consultation isn't defined in law, the guide uses the definition of a genuine dialogue, including consideration by the Therapist of possible interaction with other treatments or medical conditions. Now therapists have also been told they cannot state or imply a therapeutic purpose” unless the products have been approved as medicines. Natural health lobby group Health Freedom argue they are now forbidden by law to tell you what a product does or how to use it. Health Freedom claim that Medsafe have recently threatened 50 plus business and website owners with lawsuits on this issue. The guidelines are here: http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/regulatory/CompMed/NaturalHealth.asp

Maternity satisfaction survey
Results from a survey of nearly 3000 women who gave birth to live babies in March and April 2007 were released last week. Labelling the results overwhelmingly positive, Associate Health Minister Steve Chadwick said that the vast majority of those surveyed gave birth and received post-natal care where they wanted. In other survey results, the number of women reporting difficulty in finding a Lead Maternity Carer, even in the relatively quiet period of March/April doubled since a similar survey in 2003. The number reporting having a GP as their LMC decreased markedly over this period; percentages of women going to their GP first for care were nearly 70% for their first Births, and 45% for subsequent births. The full report is at:

http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/maternity-services-consumer-satisfaction-survey-2007

Feedback from review of HPCA Act
As part of its epic ongoing review of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act, the Ministry of Health has released feedback from a recent series of workshops. Interested parties gathered in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington during April to offer their opinions on ways the Act's operation might be improved. A number of those present acknowledged that since the Act is a relatively new piece of legislation, it is probably too early for major change. Next step: drafting of a discussion document, and a final report by the end of the year. In the meantime summaries of proposals made at each workshop can be found at http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/hpca-review#phasetwo

GP crisis on East Coast
A message from Ngati Porou Hauora: We have eight Primary Health centres, six of which are within rural communities. Our doctor coverage for our rural communities should be four GPs. One of our clinics is based within our hospital complex at Te Puia Springs three days per week. GPs are rostered to the community health centres. In line with our roster, a GP is required to perform ward rounds for our five-bed acute medical within the hospital, and also to provide on call cover for A&E services. Our current capacity is:

Dr Paratene Ngata - Vocationally Registered
Dr Kelvin DeGinder - Provisional General Scope
Dr Erling Egenaes - Special Purpose - Locum Specialist supervised by Dr Ngata

Locums (when we are able to get one through agencies)

Since Dr Ngata is currently away from work, we are lacking in a vocationally registered GP to supervise our GPs and, in some instances, young locums. We are also currently providing a rural PGY2 placement to Dr Dougal Thorburn who is now in the final three weeks of completing his placement. If you can help, contact Cara-Lee Lawton at Cara-Lee.Lawton@nph.org.nz or phone 06 8646803.

Herpes not the kiss of death
The virus that causes genital herpes is common, treatable and the butt of many jokes. The NZ Herpes Foundation is about to launch an education campaign to destigmatise herpes by getting across the basic facts about the condition. Among other things, the campaign aims to clarify common misconceptions about facial and genital forms of herpes. The Foundation will be mailing out an info pack next week to GPs across the country, which will include posters, postcards and the leaflet 'Herpes: Myth Versus Fact'. Public seminars on the later theme will take place at 7pm as follows, with Foundation manager Claire Hurst speaking alongside the director of each city’s Sexual Health Service:

28 May - Auckland  - Ellerslie Park Function Centre
3 June - Wellington - Mercure Hotel
4 June -Christchurch - Chateaux on the Park
Talking about long-term conditions

The Ministry of Health's Long-Term Conditions team are having workshops to hear from those who work daily with people who have long-term conditions, or have an interest in the subject. Each session will last about two hours, and the workshop dates are as follows

Wellington - 28 May   10am     Wellington Arts Centre
                              1.30pm  Pataka Museum Porirua
Auckland   -  5 June   10am     Athol Syms Community Hall
                              1.30pm  Te Atatau Community Hall
Christchurch -6 June  10am    Convention Centre
Dunedin    - 10 June  10am    Dunedin Centre
Whangarei - 12 June  10am    Forum North

For more details contact carolyn_bevege@moh.govt.nz

Jonathan Fox, President, RNZCGP

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Consultation

Sector

Pharmac 1 2 3 - migraine treatment and losartan
Pharmac has announced changes to three drugs, effective the 1st of June. 1) Subsidising an additional migraine treatment rizatriptan benzoate as a wafer (Maxalt Melt) 2) subsidising a new strength of losartan (Cozaar), and 3) widening access to Losartan and Losartan and hydrochlorothiazide.  Feedback on the proposed changes was generally supportive. More details here: http://www.pharmac.govt.nz/healthpros/notification

Extended deadline: 23 May
Pharmac - widened access to fentanyl patches

Pharmac is seeking feedback over a proposal to fully subsidise a new brand of fentanyl medicated patches. Fentanyl is currently funded only via a special authority for terminally ill patients who are responsive to opioids, but unable to take oral medication or morphine. The intention is to introduce the Fensic brand of patches, including a new lower strength, and remove the Special Authority requirement. Under the proposal, the currently listed fentanyl brand Durogesic would still be subsidised until at least next July, with Fensic taking over until mid 2011. For more information go to:
http://www.pharmac.govt.nz/2008/04/23/2008-04-23%20PHARMAC%20consultation%20on%20fentanyl%20patch%20proposal.pdf

Deadline: 23 May
HISO seeks ePharmacy input
The New Zealand Health Information Standards Organisation (HISO) is seeking input on two new documents. HISO, a subcommittee of HISAC, is working on developing standards for ePharmacy in the areas of both drugs and electronic messages. The hope is to establish an electronic pharmaceutical list of medicines that can be used by prescribers and pharmacists alike. The College will be making a submission. We welcome your comments at policy@rnzcgp.org.nz The two documents can be found here: http://www.hisac.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagescm/7442

Deadline: 9 June
Pharmac in the land of Herceptin

Pharmac is back in the contentious land of herceptin, seeking feedback over a proposal to decline funding for 12 months’ Herceptin. On top of seeking written feedback, Pharmac plans face to face meetings with interested parties, including breast cancer groups and women’s health groups. They may also delay a decision if new information expected in June proves relevant. Check out Pharmac’s extensive media releases on the topic for more - or else this link to the consultation document, likely the longest link we’ve seen this year:
http://www.pharmac.govt.nz/2008/05/05/Proposal%20regarding%20the%20funding%20of%2012%20months%20treatment%20with%20trastuzumab%20for%20HER%202%20positive%20breast%20cancer.pdf

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