Chief Executive's Report
VINCE BARRY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE
PEGASUS HEALTH (CHARITABLE) LTD
The 2014/15 year ended on a high note with the announcement that our youngest offshoot, Homecare Medical, is to partner with the Ministry of Health in developing and delivering a better national telehealth service.
Homecare Medical is the product of a collaboration between Pegasus Health and New Zealand’s largest Primary Health Organisation, ProCare. From November this year, it will be based in Christchurch and Auckland.
This exciting development, which is set to transform the country’s major health lines and telephone triage, is one of many examples of Pegasus Health playing an increasing role in the fabric of the New Zealand health system.
Collaborating with other PHOs, as we are with our network of Compass, ProCare and Midland Health, is putting primary care at the forefront of establishing a well-integrated and more durable national system. The Healthcare Home, which features later in this Annual Report, is a striking example of what can be achieved when New Zealanders take a partnership rather than adversarial approach and work together to tackle common issues.
Another collaboration that is progressing well is the co-sponsorship by Pegasus Health and the Canterbury District Health Board of the Canterbury Patient Portal. By the middle of 2016, half of all Canterbury practices are expected to be using the portal, allowing patients to make doctors’ appointments online, order repeat prescriptions, check test results and send private messages to their General Practice.
Pegasus Health has also continued to contribute at leadership and operational levels to the Canterbury Clinical Network. Among this year’s highlights have been progress with the Population Health Plan for Primary Care in Canterbury; supporting the development of an improved model of funding for rural practices; and assisting progress towards Kaikoura’s Integrated Family Health Centre.
Support Plus is now up and running, following requests from the Pegasus Health network for more support in managing primary and community care businesses. The assistance we are providing ranges from Human Resources advice to IT support and is tailored to suit individual business needs. Businesses only pay for what they need at any one time, keeping the cost to a minimum and ensuring the assistance is targeted directly at what people need.
It was exciting to see the conclusion of the Canterbury Healthy Homes programme late last year and the success it achieved. More than 1300 homes were made warmer and drier as a result of the initiative, which aimed to improve people’s health and reduce the impact of the Canterbury earthquakes on health services. This was the result of another successful partnership. On this occasion, between the region’s three PHOs, Canterbury District Health Board, Environment Canterbury, the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority and Community Energy Action.
Once again, Canterbury General Practice teams have performed exceptionally well. Both immunisation targets for 8 month and consented 2 years olds were exceeded, achieving a result of 96%. 93% of our 4 year olds received a B4 School Check. 2015 also saw a large increase in those patients discussing their cardiovascular health and associated risk with their general practice team (81%).
This last year we have enjoyed working with our new rural practices who joined the Pegasus network on 1 July 2015. We are delighted to now welcome Oxford Community Health Centre to the network and look forward to working closely with them.
With the 24 Hour Surgery requiring more space and the need for us to house Homecare Medical’s Christchurch team, we are looking for a suitable location for a community-based healthcare campus and are exploring options near our current location. We will keep all of our partners informed when there is more news to share.
At this exciting and often challenging time, I would like to thank our General Practice teams for their willingness to consider new ways of working and improving the services that the health system provides to Canterbury people. Your resilience, thoughtfulness and innovative thinking continually impress me.
I would also like to thank the senior leadership team who work with me and continue to enthusiastically pursue opportunities that will benefit Pegasus members and further our collaboration with other health partners. Congratulations, in particular, to Michael McIlhone for a successful start to his role as Pegasus Health’s Director of Nursing. Michael, who took up the position in November 2014, has truly embraced his new role and is already one of the cornerstones of our team.
Since our last annual report, we also have a new Board Chair, Professor Les Toop. Prior to his appointment, Professor Toop had been a director of the Board for nine years and Deputy Chair since 2012. I would like to thank him and our other Board members for their ongoing support and guidance. This is a time of incredible opportunity for Pegasus Health and our strong governance team will be critical in ensuring that we can grow the organisation to be as effective and influential as possible at a local and national level.