A new formulation of insulin will be available from 1 May 2025. Ryzodeg® 70/30 contains insulin degludec (an ultra-long-acting insulin) and insulin aspart (rapid acting mealtime insulin) administered in one injection. This is licensed for patients aged 6 years and over. This is the first true long-acting insulin funded in Aotearoa. It has an elimination half-life of 25 hours, so remains in the body for a few days. Ryzodeg® 70/30 insulin must therefore only be injected up to a maximum of twice daily, with particular care taken when prescribing for the elderly population.

Te Whatu Ora has received notice that senior doctors who are Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) members plan to strike for 24 hours on Thursday 1 May (from 00.01am to 23.59pm). The nationwide strike is planned for all Te Whatu Ora hospitals and services where ASMS members are employed.

Bay of Plenty/Waikato Faculty of RNZCGP invites all GPs (including non-faculty members) and GP registrars in the GPEP programme (years 1-3) to register for collegial support service – Ka Hono.

The National Cervical Screening Programme has advised that on 31 March Awanui identified a technical issue with their HPV testing system and paused all outgoing messages while working to resolve it. If you receive a result that shows HG cytology, please refer to colposcopy. Do not wait for HPV results.

Read the latest clinical updates for Taranaki including the opening and education session with Active+ and a database of NGOs operating within Taranaki.

The provision of extended immunisation services is part of the kaupapa to improve childhood immunisation rates by offering services at a time that suit whānau who cannot attend during regular practice hours.

These practices will offer childhood immunisations to both enrolled and non-enrolled whānau. Whānau are encouraged to contact these clinics directly to enquire about attending as booking in advance is preferable, however they will also accept walk ins.

Some users are experiencing issues with éclair eOrders, including slowness and timeouts. Pathlab has resolved most known issues but is still monitoring for others. There may be some ongoing issues for several weeks around available patient history.

Varenicline tablets (Champix) to support smoking cessation has been relisted on the pharmaceutical schedule. This medicine has been unavailable since 2021 due to manufacturing impurities which have now been rectified.

This RNZCGP and RANZCOG-approved course is designed to empower GPs and nurse practitioners to avoid overwhelm, while giving effective care to patients with persistent pelvic pain, including endometriosis and adenomyosis.

Due to workload increase and capacity constraints in Pathlab's refrigerated stockyard, they are no longer able to store blood samples for the previous duration of seven days. Effective immediately, serum samples will be stored for four days and EDTA samples will be stored for two days. Please ensure that any required follow-up testing or additional requests are submitted within the revised storage timeframes to avoid potential issues.