A new Extended Care Paramedic (ECP) initiative has been launched in Northern Coromandel in response to community-identified health needs developed through locality planning and partnerships.

Pinnacle strongly disagrees with claims by Te Whatu Ora at a Building the Future of Health webinar series on Tuesday 7 May that up to 50 per cent of general practice work could be done by telehealth.

15 COPD and CHF remote patient monitoring kits for the Tunstell telemonitoring pilot were approved and purchased by RRAG. With the pilot now finished we will be gifting this equipment by way of EOI.

Ongoing use of the Pinnacle rural accelerated chest pain pathway by general practices has highlighted how point of care testing can improve health equity in rural communities, and reduce hospital referrals to overloaded emergency departments.

For the past three decades, Kāwhia’s medical needs have been serviced by Dr John Burton and wife Sue, a qualified medical lab technician. Credit: Brianna Stewart, King Country News

Today Health Minister Andrew Little announced the first nine locality network pilots to improve how healthcare is delivered in local communities. We’re excited to share that Taupō/Tūrangi and Hauraki have been selected in this pilot phase.

The Pinnacle rural committee is seeking rural GP representatives.

Pat Bodger, Te Atiawa, Taranaki, Ngati Mutanga, Ngāruahine, Ngati Ruanui, has a straightforward approach to rural community nursing: you just get it done.

A proposed education clinic for tamariki with eczema and dermititis has received the 2021 Pinnacle Medical Scholarship, including $10,000 in funding to support the initiative.

RuralFest identifies key changes needed to improve health and wellbeing in rural communities, and takes those messages to Parliament. Dr Robin Baird, Te Kauwhata GP and Dr Jo Scott-Jones, GP and medical director report back on the 2021 event.