After a couple of frustrating months with delays due to manufacturing errors in the initial batch, our carpets which were due in May are finally in. Thanks to everyone who tidied up to get things ready and especially to everyone who stayed on late on Friday to get the rooms clear and ready for Saturday and then came back in and put in a solid few hours on Sunday afternoon and evening to get things ready and tested before tomorrow morning. Special thanks to Keith and his son, Mathew, who came in to wrestle with the spaghetti that runs from our server, and to Paul who gave up 6 hours of his last day of holiday to help.

Last week we had a couple of visitors to the practice. First was the Practice Manager from Riverslea Medical Centre in Edgecumbe. They are preparing for their first Cornerstone assessment and as Tarawera Medical Centre was the first Eastern Bay practice to achieve Cornerstone and has subsequently completed 2 reaccreditation cycles we are well placed to assist and happy to help. Cornerstone is an accreditation programme specifically designed by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and is a combined quality improvement and quality assurance process.

Our second visitor was Jay Preston who runs the chiropractic clinic from the Tarawera Pharmacy at the Tarawera Medical Complex. It was great to catch up with him and hear that things are taking off well with a lot of people appreciating being able to access chiropractic locally instead of having to travel out of town. He is ACC accredited and he offers a discount for seniors. He made the point that he practices a traditional form of chiropractic focussing on bone and joint alignment and feels that soft tissue therapy is more appropriately dealt with by a physio. He has an interesting accent for a Kiwi – pop in and say hello. See his website for more information.

After some frustrating delays all the renovation building and painting has been completed and we spent a couple of hours after work today setting up the new rooms and installing computers so all should be go during next week. It will be great to have the new spacious nurses/treatment room available as it will provide a third treatment room space. Our new carpets were due to go in this weekend but have been delayed by a manufacturing error in the batch delivered for the installation – a little more patience and it will be done. Heaps of great feedback from patients, so thanks to everyone for their patience and extra efforts to achieve everything needed including having our Cornerstone re-accreditation visit during the building process!