Monday Pānui 25 August 2025

In today’s Pānui	Auckland PHO Network Survey:  Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in General Practice Auckland PHO Professional Development Funding Urgent Care and After-Hours Telehealth Services Police Vetting Check Rejections The Value of a GP
Auckland PHO Network Survey:  Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in General Practice	AI tools play a growing and powerful role in the delivery of health services, helping both patients and professionals in many ways.  Auckland PHO wishes to gauge our network's understanding and use of AI and AI tools (specifically clinical scribing tools). We will use this information to provide appropriate guidance as these tools grow and develop. Below is the link to a short (~ 3 minutes), anonymised survey intended for clinicians, which will provide us with this baseline information. Thank you to those clinicians who have already completed it – we greatly appreciate your time and input. Link to Survey: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in General Practice.
Auckland PHO Professional Development Funding	Auckland PHO has a professional development fund that all members of the practice team can apply for.  Here is a summary: The amount of funding available depends on the FTE and designation of team members The course or conference is relevant to Primary Care The applicant has been employed at or contracted to an Auckland PHO practice for at least six months (is not a locum or temp) Funding is valid from 1 July – 30 June in any year Our funded resuscitation sessions are SEPARATE to the Professional Development fund For more information, contact suzanne@aucklandpho.co.nz Find out more here Learning and Development Information and how to claim.
Urgent Care and After-Hours Telehealth Services	Te Whatu Ora now funds eight telehealth providers to deliver after hours and urgent care through the on-line 24/7 telemedicine service.  https://info.health.nz/services-support/online-phone-healthcare/online-gp-care Patients have a choice of provider as listed on the website above. Auckland PHO no longer contracts with Practice Plus as a ‘preferred provider’.  Practices can continue to use Practice Plus if they wish, as nothing changes for the practice or the patient.
Police Vetting Check Rejections	We are aware that the Police Vetting service have rejected checks for reception staff which is in contrast to the requirements for Foundation Standards.  Please contact emma@aucklandpho.co.nz if you are experiencing these issues.
The Value of a GP	Dr Mark Taylor has updated his PowerPoint presentation on The Value of a GP. This is designed as a resource for primary care leaders when presenting/advocating for primary care. The presentation is a one stop shop and covers a lot! Primary care leaders can simply copy and paste the slides that are relevant to their needs. You can find the presentation on the GPNZ website as PDF and presentation slides. No recognition or permission is required to use this work, but Dr Mark welcomes feedback. Knowing it is being used and has been found useful gives him the energy to keep the presentation updated! Feel free to email admin@gpnz.org.nz with your feedback and the GPNZ team will relay this to Dr Mark.

Barbara Stevens | Tumu Whakarae / CEO