Yearly Archives: 2017

Summer holidays 2017-18

This entry was posted in Health promotion News and tagged health promotion holiday hours prevention skin cancer sun protection sunscreen Tarawera Medical Centre on by
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.

Winter illnesses

This entry was posted in Health promotion and tagged colds flu health promotion immunisation influenza Tarawera Medical Centre winter on by

The winter season is well and truly upon us with this cold snap and the past few weeks has seen a real run of colds and the first real cases of influenza for the year. Remember that most winter illnesses are caused by viruses and don’t benefit from, nor respond to, antibiotic treatment. Unnecessary use of antibiotics enables bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance so it is unwise to take an antibiotic “left over” from a previous course prescribed for you or someone else. The old fashioned advice of using Paracetamol to help fevers, aches and pains, along with some rest and plenty of fluids remains valid today. Lozenges, gargles and lemon drinks can all help soothe the symptoms while your immune system overcomes the infection. Covering your face when coughing or sneezing, using disposable tissues and washing hands can help limit the spread of infection. Morning walk-in clinics for our enrolled patients are running at full capacity so there can be a bit of a wait. Influenza is vaccine preventable and it’s not too late to have the vaccine which is free to over 65s and others with certain conditions.

This page from the NHS on Winter Illnesses has some interesting facts

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.