Locality draws Pacific providers: South Auckland locality primed for dramatic expansion

We can see this becoming a national collaboration

Pacific healthcare and social service providers as far afield as Dunedin are looking to link with the south Auckland Ōtara-Papatoetoe prototype locality.

South Seas Healthcare chief executive and co-chair of the locality governance group, Silao Vaisola-Sefo, says two Pacific providers, Pacific Trust Otago and the Pacific Health Plus practices in Porirua and Kapiti, are considering formally signing their locality charter to become partners.

“We can see this becoming a national collaboration,” Mr Vaisola-Sefo says.

Such regional connections began during the COVID response when Wellington-based Pacific providers supplied nurses to support their Auckland colleagues.

When you think about it,” he says, “it’s only one hour and 40 minutes from one end of the country to another, so if that’s how we can best utilise our Pacific workforce, then why not? We just need to get our models of care and clinical practices right, and our forecasting for where the need will be.”

After submitting a list of indicative priorities to Te Whatu Ora, Mr Vaisola-Sefo says they are incorporating feedback from the agency into their locality plan which is to be completed by the end of April.

He says the feedback called for greater emphasis on non-medical issues such as social housing.

The final plan is now being drafted in consultation with mana whenua and will be presented to their iwi Māori partnership board; Mr Vaisola-Sefo says this was finalised on 17 March.

Forty organisations have now formally signed the Ōtara-Papatoetoe locality charter, including The Asian Network, an Onehunga-based incorporated society that grew out of the-then Auckland City Council’s 2000 Asian Forum. The network provides a range of health and social services and community support.

“How would we have ended up talking to the Asian community before (setting up the locality),” says Mr Vaisola-Sefo, “they’ve always done what they do, and we do what we do…I know I’m in the middle of this, but I’m excited, I can see the change happening every day.”

The partnership will kick off its first collaborative health initiative, to confront high rates of diabetes, in mid-April.

The programme will be funded by the $20 million set aside for diabetes initiatives that was included in the 2022 Budget.

“This is our prototype within a prototype,” says Mr Vaisola-Sefo.

He says the governance group is finalising a plan that will feature about six locality partners: “And we will have social determinants organisations at the table right from the start.

“This will involve families, church groups, green prescriptions, healthcare and social housing, and when people ask me what a locality will look like, this is it.”

But he says the collective is still waiting to hear how funding from Te Whatu Ora will be channelled to locality partners, and how the health entity will carry out commissioning at a locality level.

Pacific Trust Otago and Pacific Health Plus were approached for comment but did not reply by deadline.