Green Cross Health’s preparation for the Omicron tidal wave

The Omicron wave is slamming general practice as community cases are surging. Predicting this is how it would play out, Green Cross Health introduced Covid Care to support their nationwide network of 53 The Doctors medical centres.

“We saw what was happening in our Auckland practices where our teams have been inundated with the various aspects of diagnosing and managing COVID-19. There has been enormous pressure on them for the past two and half years, well before this Omicron tidal wave.”

“It’s not sustainable and it was easy to see how it would happen everywhere, so we’ve set up a Covid Care service that will support our practices’ and their Covid-19 positive patients with virtual care while they are isolating and self-managing at home,” says Dr Stephanie Taylor, Medical Clinical Director at Green Cross Health.

“We’ve got over 1,400 employees and easing the pressure on them came first. We also have over 334,000 enrolled patients across New Zealand who could be affected. While we knew eventually the health system would set up regional or national virtual services, we couldn’t wait for an unknown timeframe and hope for the best,” says Dr Taylor.

Dr Umang Patel is Green Cross Health’s new Virtual Clinical Lead who has been bought on board to strengthen and develop their telehealth capabilities. Based in Hawkes Bay with training in Emergency medicine and Urgent Care, Dr Patel has been helping with the regional COVID-19 response for the last 6 months and brings that experience to lead The Doctors Covid Care team.

“There is a very real need to take the pressure off our hard-working GPs and medical teams, who are already stretched, and to make sure all their enrolled patients who test positive for COVID-19 get access to this wrap-around care,” says Dr Patel.

“There are increasing demands on general practice every day to deliver additional COVID-19 services way beyond their capacity! Providing this service gives them one less thing to think about and plan for,” says Dr Patel.

The Covid Care service ticks a lot of boxes. Along with easing pressure in outbreak epicentres like Auckland, it will provide much-needed access for patients living in rural or remote areas, especially Northland and Gisborne.

Simplistically, when a patient in this network tests positive they can be quickly referred into the Covid Care service if their own doctor/clinic cannot cope with their surge in workload. Clinicians work with the patient, virtually assess their health needs, the frequency of consults that will be needed and how to help them monitor their symptoms. Once they are recovering, they are discharged back to their GP for post-Covid follow up if required. The service is run by The Doctors network, for all their practices so there is complete continuity of care for their enrolled patients.