News

Summer holidays 2017-18

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Sarah with the artistic display she has created for Christmas

Sarah with the artistic display she has created for the notice board in the waiting room

We would like to wish all our patients a safe and happy Christmas and New Year over the summer holidays. Our resident artist, Sarah Morris, has created a lovely seasonal display in the waiting room. This has a reminder about our hours over the holidays. Basically we are open normal hours except for the stat holidays.

Closed Saturday 23 – Tuesday 26 December,

Open as usual Wednesday 27, Thursday 28 and Friday 29 December,

Closed Saturday 30 December – Tuesday 2 January,

Open as usual Wednesday 3, Thursday 4  and Friday 5 January

When we are closed the usual nurse triage service is available by phone and the usual GP afterhours clinics are availabe at Whakatane Hospital.

A reminder to make sure that you have enough of your regular prescription medications prior to the holidays. Repeats can be requested via our email prescription request.

We have had an early start to summer with the good sunny, dry weather which has been great for the beach but is a reminder to be careful in the sun. Try and avoid the sun and seek shade, use long sleeved sun protective clothing, a wide brimmed hat and plenty of sunscreen. See the Sunsmart website for more info on the usual Slip, Slop, Slap and Slide advice. The sun protection alert above shows the hours that sun protection is advised for our region of the North Island and updates daily.

Edgecumbe Floods

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Flooding on SH2 west of Pukehina which, if any worse, would have further isolated the Eastern Bay

This has been a challenging week for the Eastern Bay of Plenty, most especially the residents of Edgecumbe and surrounds directly affected by the flooding. This includes 3 of our staff members, who despite the uncertainty of their personal situations, have continued to give of their best for our patients, Edgecumbe patients and even Kawerau Medical Centre patients who turned up at Tarawera Medial Centre on Thursday afternoon reporting finding their practice closed and abandoned. We have liased closely with the Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance to support the staff of the Edgecumbe practice and offered use of our rooms if required. Road closures have made it difficult for staff commuting from Papamoa and Rotorua but despite this we have remained fully staffed and operational in line with our long standing committment to the community. Here’s hoping for a warm dry spell so that our staff and the rest of the Edgecumbe evacuees can get back to their homes and lives.

Braemar Road fortunatley remained open despite a lot of mud.

SH30 reopened on Friday after being closed for 2 days due to this big slip near Hauparu Bay.

Summer Holidays 2016-17

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Early morning surfing. Earlier or later in the day is a great time for the sea as the sun is not so intense.

Hopefully you are all enjoying the beginning of the summer break with a safe Christmas and looking forward to the New Year. It has been another busy and successful year for the practice with our ongoing focus on quality and education. Two more  Nurses, Ngawai and Keri, completed the PRIME training course, spending a week in Hamilton to do this. This gives them fantastic theoretical and practical skills to assist the St. John ambulance when needed. In addition Jackie Morris is now an accredited Prescribing Nurse. Jackie completed her Masters Degree in Nursing and a Prescribing module some years back and with recent legislation changes is now authorised to prescribe a wide range of medication appropriate to managing Primary Care medical conditions.  When you make an appointment at Tarawera Medical Centre you are always seen by a fully qualified and experienced nurse or doctor. We do not expect our patients to discuss their personal issues with health care assistants before seeing a fully qualified health professional.

Tarawera Medical Centre will reopen on Wednesday 28 December and again be closed for the stat holidays over the New Year weekend. Please check that you have sufficient supplies of your medication if going away and use the email request form if you need a new prescription. t

Best wishes for the New Year. Travel safely and remember to be Sunsmart.

Spring has arrived

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Tracy Wilson's lovely Spring garden

Tracy Wilson’s lovely Spring garden in front of Tarawera Medical Centre

Spring has well and truly arrived with a warm August bringing clouds of pollen. Thanks to talented nurse/garden wizard Tracy Wilson, the garden is in full bloom and looking lovely. Resident artist/receptionist Sara Morris has extended the Spring theme indoors with a bright poster promoting Cardiovascular Risk Assessments. After some dedicated hard work we are very pleased to have achieved the 90% target of completed CVRAs for eligible patients in our enrolled population.

Sara's colourful CVRA display surrounded by Spring Daffodils

Sara’s colourful CVRA display surrounded by Spring Daffodils

We have had a relatively mild winter with very little genuine influenza after a good uptake with the flu vaccines. We had a few epidemics of the usual winter colds and will no doubt have some more into Spring. We are seeing a lot of the usually allergy symptoms with the pollen so it you are troubled by this make an appointment and we can work out a plan for you depending on your specific symptoms. With the brighter and longer days it is a good time to remember the importance of covering up in the sun to reduce the risk of future skin cancer problems.

New PRIME trained nurses

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Tracy Wilson and Shannin Howe at their PRIME course.

Tracy Wilson and Shannin Howe at their PRIME course.

Recently 2 of the Tarawera Medical Centre Nurses, Tracy Wilson and Shannin Howe, completed the 1 week initial PRIME training course in Hamilton. PRIME is a scheme where rural practitioners train and work with St. John to provide emergency care. Tarawera Medical Centre has always supported our local ambulance attending emergencies as we feel that this is an important part of being health care providers in the town. It is a significant commitment with staff having to sometimes leave busy clinics to deal with emergencies but patients are very understanding as they would appreciate the care in an emergency themselves. This is reflected in the grateful feedback that we get from patients that we have attended.

Tracy and Shannin had an enjoyable week learning practical skills and as was to be expected on the first day they were back at work we were called out twice on PRIME calls so that they could put their training into practice.