Chief Executive's Report
Vince Barry
Chief Executive
Vince Barry, Chief Executive, Pegasus Health
In this summary of the 2016/17 year, I would firstly like to thank everyone, particularly our General Practice members and staff, who have through their everyday work and contribution to new initiatives, helped to make primary care services better for our community.
Moving Pegasus Health and the 24 Hour Surgery into new premises was one of the year’s biggest endeavours. The 24 Hour Surgery shift, which was executed at the unusual hour of 1am to minimise disruption to patients, went without a hitch. The moving team, led by Simon Brokenshire, Bernie Hayes, Claire McQuilken and Janine Money, all deserve a generous round of applause. The shift had little impact on patients on the night and because of the well-planned and delivered communications, we have had very few people mistakenly arrive at Bealey Ave. Our Communications Manager Georgina Hunter and her team deserve special thanks for this.
While the new 24 Hour Surgery is much more respectful to patients and provides better working conditions for staff, most of what makes the 24 Hour Surgery run so smoothly was already in place before the shift. However, we now have a great model of care being practiced from a well-designed facility that is better suited to 21st century medicine. Having Prime Minister Bill English come to open the facility was wonderful recognition of the high standard of care delivered at the 24 Hour Surgery and its ongoing commitment to the Canterbury public and General Practice.
Another highlight of the year was the introduction of a number of new services to better support General Practice. We have known for some time that General Practice teams have wanted more support in areas such as GP recruitment, finding locums, and HR. Meeting this need has been a major focus for Pegasus in the last couple of years. We have now developed a suite of services, with this year’s additions including GP Plus, which focuses on recruiting doctors and finding suitable placements for them, and BeeFoundNZ, which helps to put locums and practices together. Stories about both of these services feature elsewhere in this report. We have also built an online buy/sell area for people wanting to buy or sell a General Practice in Canterbury. Access to these services and others, including HR and IT support, are available through the Support Plus website, re-launched at the GP CME conference in August 2017.
Sourcing and planning a future focused Patient Management System (PMS) has been a major piece of work for the organisation in the 2016/17 year. Evaluating all potential options took longer than anticipated but it is worth taking our time to find a system and company that suits us. Importantly, we will be able to work in partnership with them, so that we can configure the system to suit the needs of Pegasus members, now and in the future. The highlights of this project for me have been the exceptionally good diligence, very thoughtful management and incredibly supportive Board, who recognised the importance of this substantial investment. The feedback from practices at the Sirius roadshows is heartening. Ninety per cent of practices have been represented at the events and ninety per cent of them said they liked the look of what the new system could offer.
The introduction of Sirius is not just about a new IT system but providing General Practice with an important tool to support the changes that have been occurring in the last 10 to 12 years, through work such as the Integrated Family Health Service (IFHS) and Health Care Home. It can easily be configured to support innovation and is designed to support clinical and business management. It will allow practitioners to access and contribute to patient information on the move; practices to be more efficient with workflows; and offer increased opportunities to collaborate with other health providers. Sirius will also allow patients to access their General Practice through a portal, enabling them to make appointments, order scripts and see their clinical records, if supported by the practice.
The success of Homecare Medical is another highlight of the year. Its transition to being the national telehealth provider has gone incredibly well. A total of 573,000 contacts were made across various channels including text, email, call and webchat in the past year to National Telehealth Service helplines.
It has been pleasing to see that other services are being added to the platform. Homecare Medical has recently won a contract for the Early Mental Health Response Service that allows callers to 111, who are in psychological or social distress, to be transferred directly to a dedicated team of mental health nurses.
The newly launched national mental health and addictions helpline – ‘1737, need to talk?’ for people seeking mental health and addictions advice has also been launched in the last year. It has been well publicised and is already off to a great start with more than 2000 contacts made via text or call in the first two months.
Homecare Medical has also been selected as the coordination services provider for the National Bowel Screening Programme and been awarded the contract to develop and operate the 24/7 national helpline for New Zealanders affected by sexual violence.
Despite all of our activity, I am pleased to say that Pegasus Health will end the year in a financially strong position. With so much expenditure required for shifting to Madras St, this is very much a tribute to our clinical, managerial and finance teams.
Thank you again to everyone who supports Pegasus Health, including our staff, our partners, the Canterbury public, and most importantly, our members. Lastly I would like to acknowledge Pegasus members in Kaikoura and those who supported them following the 2016 earthquake. Your care and support for the Kaikoura community was a vital part of the initial earthquake response and will be crucial in the area’s ongoing recovery. My very best wishes for the year ahead.