Monday Pānui 15 September 2025

Celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori:  From 14-20 September Aotearoa New Zealand celebrates the 50th anniversary of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. This year the focus is on making te reo Māori visible by encouraging everyone to take simple actions that demonstrate their support and commitment to te reo Māori. Check out this website for ideas to help make te reo Māori a lasting part of our everyday lives.
In today’s Pānui	Smoking and Vaping Coding Guidance Patient Enrolment Pack – Enhancing the Enrolment Process Health NZ Library Resources Nurse Pay Clarification Heartbeats – Cardiac Peer Support Group Services
Smoking and Vaping Coding Guidance	Last month, Auckland PHO created a guidance document on how to code individuals who smoke or vape within the PMS. This was created to support consistent and accurate data entry for smoking and vaping status. Edits have been made to the Ex-Smoker Read Codes for both <12 months and >12 months categories. Additionally, an error where the Read Codes and Snomed codes were swapped has now been amended in the document. Please see an amended version of the Smoking & Vaping Coding Guideline. This guideline can also be found on the Auckland PHO Resource Library, under Forms, HR and Support (password: aucklandpho)
Patient Enrolment Pack – Enhancing the Enrolment Process	Auckland PHO is pleased to introduce an Enrolment Pack, which is a new resource developed for our practice network. The aim of the pack is to ensure that every new patient enrolling at your practice receives the required enrolment information in a clear and consistent way and is a welcoming experience. What the new enrolment pack includes When a patient enrols, they must be provided with:  Enrolment form (with privacy statement attached) – mandatory*  “About the Practice” document – introduces your practice to new patients, what enrolment means and FAQs about general practice – mandatory  Updated Adult and Child Health Questionnaires – optional (practices may use the updated versions provided or continue with their own versions).  Komal will be emailing practices individually with tailored versions of the documents above and with additional information regarding implementation. *as per the Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand Enrolment rules
Health NZ Library Resources	In case you missed this in the last Friday’s Facts Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora Library and Knowledge Services are pleased to announce the launch of an important new service for the Primary Care community: Library resources for Primary Care. What’s available?24/7 login access to a range of high-quality online library resources for Primary Care, including: BMJ Best Practice Cochrane Library ProQuest Health Premium Collection: Medical, Nursing & Allied, Psychology, Public Health multi-media databases and eBook collection. Oxford Journals and eBooks John Murtagh’s collection How do you login? An OpenAthens account will give you full access. Register below. Follow this link to register   To help the approval of your application, if possible:   register using your work email address   register from your workplace If you need any help, you can contact the Te Whatu Ora team here. For more information, see this guide. Information is also available on their website Library and knowledge service – Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Nurse Pay Clarification	We have recently had some queries re - the pay disparity funding changes, please see below info which hopefully helps clarify things: The majority of Primary Care/Practice Nurse pay disparities funding ($30M) has been incorporated into capitation funding from 1 July 2025. This will not be itemised in your capitation payments as it is now part of the base funding provided to primary care and distributed to practices as per the current capitation formula.  The remaining $9.1M of the nurse pay disparities funding has added to immunisation funding acknowledging the significant role of nurses in delivering these services. This additional funding has allowed Te Whatu Ora to introduce the co-administration fee across all immunisations as well as uplift the rates.
Heartbeats – Cardiac Peer Support Group Services	Heartbeats is New Zealand’s largest community-led, peer-to-peer cardiac support group, offering free, nationwide support to heart patients, survivors, and their whānau. It is a registered charitable trust with a professional Board that includes a Cardiologist and Health Psychologist and is acknowledged by the Heart Foundation NZ. Founded by a heart event survivor, Heartbeats provides a range of services designed to support both the physical and mental wellbeing of cardiac patients: Monthly in-person and online HeartTALKS featuring qualified health professionals HeartBUDDY platform connecting patients with similar conditions for peer support 1:1 psychological counselling with Health Psychologists specialising in cardiac-related trauma CARDIO rehab programme developed in collaboration with AUT and the University of Auckland These services are available to heart patients, survivors, and their whānau across the motu. Please consider distributing the Heartbeats poster or brochure for patients who may benefit. Heartbeats – Poster Heartbeats - Brochure For more information, visit their website here. Additionally, please click here to see other cardiac support groups offered around New Zealand.

Barbara Stevens | Tumu Whakarae / CEO