Business model flips as Ōtara clinic rises to COVID challenge

WINNER

SOUTH SEAS HEALTHCARE

South Seas Healthcare had a complete rethink of its business model in response to COVID-19.

South Seas Healthcare clinical director Andrew Chan Mow says, “Like most general practices, at the beginning of this we were extremely anxious because not many of us had faced a pandemic before. We were all facing this with trepidation and anxiety.”

South Seas Healthcare is a large Pacific primary healthcare provider in Auckland’s suburb of Ōtara, with over 50 staff of predominantly Pacific ethnicity. The GP clinic serves 5300 patients and has community outreach services catering to the Ōtara population.

“The key thing for us was to prepare, prepare, prepare, and get ready for anything that was coming,” Dr Chan Mow says.

Knowing that the most vulnerable people will be the worst affected by the pandemic, South Seas looked to see what was needed and addressed what they could to protect and support their patients.

The key changes to the model saw the establishment of a COVID-19 testing centre, virtual consults, a no staff-redundancy policy and the introduction of a foodbank.

The practice knew it was unrealistic for their patients to travel far to get swabbed so established a community testing station right outside its door. By the end of July, staff had swabbed just under 10,000 people.

“We had no positive swabs, and this was very important to us. There were no positive swabs in Ōtara,” Dr Chan Mow says.

“Primary care access has always been an issue for Pacific people, and we had to have a response that did not let consultations become an additional barrier. Going into lockdown, the age of virtual consults was upon us. I never imagined they would become an everyday business model,” Dr Chan Mow says.

Food security became the biggest concern in the community during the pandemic, so South Seas set up a foodbank, reaching out to other providers, civil defence and Auckland City Council to help. A highlight of that is a network that has now been built with these different providers, Dr Chan Mow says.

South Seas also mandated from the start that no staff would be let go. This was something that was very important, he says, as many of their staff are their family’s sole income earners.

Judges' comments:

They engaged, saw and actioned according to the needs of their people. The new initiatives and programmes are outstanding, and to immerse these into the CBAC services and pop-up testing stations is exceptional

FINALIST

NEWTOWN UNION HEALTH SERVICE

FLEXIBILITY IS THE BACKBONE of Wellington’s Newtown Union Health Service, according to GP team leader Vivienne Coppell.

Like every practice, Newtown Union Health Service (NUHS) had to rapidly adjust to COVID-19 to keep staff and patients safe.

It succeeded, all the while maintaining high immunisation rates, rolling out mobile swabbing and including medical students in video consultations so they could continue to observe.

NUHS is a community-owned, not-for-profit general practice with three clinic sites, outreach services and a multidisciplinary staff of over 50. This very low-cost access practice serves over 8000 patients and is a member of the Wellington region’s Tū Ora PHO.

“Because of the sort of practice we have, we are very much community focused, not just patient focused. We recognise the community our patient lives in is just as important to health outcomes,” Dr Coppell says.

Their outcomes include a pneumovax programme for Pacific patients and a 24-hour glucose monitoring programme that is already producing excellent results.

“It’s teamwork, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this without our relationship with the community,” Dr Coppell says.

Judges' comments:

This is a very impressive and historically innovative ractice which is willing to take on those in our society with very little