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Ngā mihi mahana kia koe,


It’s great to be back in touch with you to share what Total Healthcare PHO and its partners are doing. 

Hot off the press this month is founding PHO trustee Dr Kantilal Patel’s induction into the Kiwi Indian Hall of Fame – a great honour. We’re also celebrating a new clinic in the East Tamaki Healthcare family and Cornerstone accreditation of the entire provider network. Plus, we tell you about one of our provider’s GP teachers and his aspirations for GP training.

Nāku noa nā,
Mark Vella
CEO
PS. As a reminder, Total Healthcare contracts Nirvana Health Group as its Management Support Organisation, and Nirvana contracts medical providers to deliver the services required in the PHO/DHB contracts. The providers include East Tamaki Healthcare, West Auckland Healthcare, Raukura practices, and White Cross.  

Indian Hall of Fame honour for Dr Kantilal Patel

Manukau GP, businessman and community stalwart Dr Kantilal Patel is the latest to enter the Indian Hall of Fame.

Prime Minister John Key inducted Dr Patel at an award ceremony held in Auckland just two weeks’ ago. The glittering event drew several other high profile politicians: Sam Lotu-Iiga, Jami-Lee Ross, Winston Peters, Phil Goff and David Shearer.

Dr Patel is founding director of Nirvana Health Group, which began as a solo GP practice in Otara in 1977 and is now the largest private, clinician-owned network of general practices in New Zealand.

A Distinguished Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, a founding member of the WONCA (World Organisation of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of Family Physicians), a Queen’s Service Medal recipient for services to medicine and the Indian Community, Dr Patel is also a founding trustee of New Zealand’s first mainstream Primary Health Organisation: Total Healthcare Charitable Trust. Read more

Meeting new Health Minister Jonathan Coleman 

From left: National MP Mr Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Minister of Health Dr Jonathan Coleman, Dr Kantilal Patel, Dr Ellis Situe, Dr Pramod Galgali, Mrs Ranjna Patel and Dr Oruba Khalil

Nirvana Health Group, East Tamaki Healthcare and Total Healthcare PHO are looking forward to a productive relationship with the new Minister of Health, Dr Jonathan Coleman.

Dr Coleman met with trustees, directors and staff from the three organisations for the first time in April. A short, but informative meeting was held and Dr Coleman was interested to hear about Nirvana’s values and its model of care. 

Nirvana and Total Healthcare turning heads

Wins by Nirvana Health Group and a Total Healthcare PHO trustee at the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust Diversity Awards are continuing to grab attention.

The 2014 award winners caught the eye of the Government’s Chief Talent Officer. In April 2015 Nirvana was selected as an exemplar of healthcare delivery and invited to the State Services Commission Executive Leadership Summit to present. This is quite an honour as Nirvana and the PHO were the only health providers invited.

PHO trustee Dr Ellis Situe (pictured) and Nirvana Health Group director Rakesh Patel accompanied Ranjna Patel to Wellington’s Te Papa Museum to be part of the trade show.

Dr Situe and Mr Patel delivered 15-minute presentations on Nirvana Health Group’s values and vision as well as how policy makers could influence better risk assessment in patient consultations.

Other presenters came from organisations like Statistics New Zealand and Wiki New Zealand. The summit was attended by high level Government officials and public servants from justice, health, education, social development, immigration and police with the aim of encouraging intersectorial collaboration.

RNZCGP milestone for Nirvana Health Group

From left: East Tamaki Healthcare General Manager Dr John Evangelista and Total Healthcare PHO trustee, founding director of Nirvana and East Tamaki Healthcare Dr Kantilal Patel.

Nirvana Health Group has a new string to add to its quality bow: the first group accreditation ever awarded by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. This is the first time RNZCGP has awarded this quality accreditation to a group of 21 clinic practices rather than an individual stand-alone practice. 

“This is a testament of the quality and uniqueness of the standardised systems, processes and procedures of the Nirvana Health Group,” East Tamaki Healthcare General Manager Dr John Evangelista says.

Practices are required to meet more than 200 standards reviewed by at least two experienced external assessors. Cornerstone Accreditation is a process designed to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of a healthcare facility as a means to assess the organisation against the national standard for New Zealand General Practices, Aiming for Excellence.

This network-wide accreditation is the fruit of many years of hard work initiated by its founder and PHO trustee Dr Kantilal Patel.

“Through the years, we have developed a standardised system that is rigorously observed throughout the whole network of clinics. This is definitely not an easy task but demands insight into the needs of our patients and the application of robust IT infrastructure,” Dr Patel says.

New ETHC clinic for Papatoetoe patients

East Tamaki Healthcare patients living in Papatoetoe and surrounds now have access to their GP closer to home.

The Kolmar Rd clinic began operation in March 2015, but was officially opened on 16 May coinciding with a community health day for women. The practice, co-located with pharmacy and dentist clinic, was opened by National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi. Read more

Work and Income visits add value to GP training

GP teacher Tane Taylor wants to see more GP registrars visiting Work and Income offices.

Dr Taylor, also an RNZCGP education committee member and consultant to Total Healthcare PHO's medical provider, Nirvana Health Group, says when GP trainees visit Work and Income they come away with a new and valuable perspective.

"Registrars become more grounded, they have a better understanding of what Work and Income does and how directly that relates to the health and wellbeing of their patients," he says. Read more 
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