Kia ora everyone, BOPDHB to pilot a new Paediatric Orthopaedic Triage Service (POTS) in the Western Bay The purpose of this email is to inform you of a new service (POTS) that the BOPDHB is about to pilot and what impacts this will have on Western Bay General Practices. If you could forward this email to your GP practices that are situated in the Western Bay (Practice Managers and GPs) to ensure everyone is aware of the changes about to commence. It is important to note that we will be looking to expand the pilot to the Eastern Bay however that will take place later in 2021. The Western Bay pilot will commence on 2nd August 2021. This mean that from Monday 26th July Western Bay General Practices can refer children with specific postural variant conditions to POTS. Why are we doing this? Prior to POTS, GPs would refer tamariki with Orthopaedic conditions directly to Orthopaedics where they could wait 4-6 months to be seen by an Orthopaedic specialist often to be referred onto a paediatric physiotherapist as the majority of tamariki with normal variants don’t require surgery. The aim of the new service will enable tamariki to be seen quickly (right time) by an expert paediatric physiotherapist (right person) who will be able to provide assessment and treatment options. POTS criteria POTS sits under the wider BOPDHB Orthopaedic services umbrella alongside the Community Orthopaedic Triage Service (COTS). The POTS Clinic will see the below postural variant conditions in those under 16 years of age: - Intoeing/Outtoeing - Flat feet - Toe Walkers - Curly Toes - Bow Legs - Knock knees These children can be referred to POTS from Primary Care via a new POTS BPAC referral form accessible under Orthopaedics. Localised health pathways will be made available via the Midland Region Community Health pathways. This information will include patient handouts to support the whanau of the tamariki. It will also outline when to refer to a specialist service (POTS). The POTS pathway is: • BPAC referral • Physio triages referral within 72 hours • Patient booked into a POTS clinic • Physiotherapist sees patient for their initial assessment within 4 weeks of referral received • Intervention provided by the physiotherapist where possible and either discharged from the service or on-referred (see pathways listed below)
BOPDHB to pilot a new Paediatric Orthopaedic Triage Service (POTS) in the Western Bay
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