People Leaders Update 15 July 2022

15 July 2022 Welcome to the People Leaders Update This weekly update is for people leaders and managers of teams. It includes information you can share with your teams and guidance for engaging your teams on changes to our health system.

In this update: •

Transformation updates ▪ Next steps for how we organise ourselves ▪ Workforce

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Operational updates ▪ Managing our system capacity

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People Leader actions for the week ▪ Winter wellness – check in on your teams ▪ Share the key messages and news from this update

Transformation updates Please highlight our transformation developments to your teams.

Next steps for how we organise ourselves Back in April and May Margie outlined our future operating model and high level structures.

With Day 1 behind us, and interim leadership in place across Te Whatu Ora, we will now progress how we organise ourselves at a national, regional and local level. The key focus is moving to a unified, smarter and sustainable system. We have a unique opportunity to organise ourselves and work in ways that will allow us to deliver the five shifts we’ve identified and committed to, as well as the five priority outcomes.

Some areas such as Data and Digital, Commissioning, Infrastucture and Investment, have already started this process, and Hospital and Specialist Services will start this week.

We’ll provide more detail about the three stages for the operating model work next week – including our working groups, current state analysis, design, and implementation phases – and timeframes. Our plan is to break this work into key outcomes that will be completed by the end of September, and the end of December.

At a high level, the objective of our working groups is to recommend, within a few months, the national and regional functions and roles to lead those groups, and the capabilities and technologies required to deliver. This will then form the basis for consultation on changes to roles and reporting lines within the system. We will be undertaking formal consultation on change and people will have an opportunity to have their say. We’re conscious any change over the next period needs to take into account the pressures associated with winter so we will keep our people leaders well-informed.

Workforce You will have seen significant media interest this week in our workforce. We have a strong direction from the Minister and our Board around prioritising activity that will allow us to make early progress on addressing our workforce challenges.

We have some early initiatives underway: ▪

We’ve had a strong response to our overseas recruitment and we are now facilitating an encouraging number of health workers through immigration for employment across the specialties. Some the categories are doctors, nurses, allied health and midwifery.

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Te Whatu Ora is now an accredited employer on the Immigration website. We’re setting up a national service which will be locally delivered, to help healthcare workers and their families, meet immigration requirements. This will be scaled up as we recruit more people to support the service.

Operational updates Please highlight these operational updates to your teams.

Managing our system capacity You may have seen the announcements yesterday on the steps we’re taking to roll out national, regional and local initiatives to manage our system capacity. Our focus is to make sure people get the right care at the right time and seek health advice early when they are unwell. By focusing on ensuring people access care early and receive appropriate care in the community, we can help our health services remain available for those who need it most.

We’re moving quickly to roll out national, regional and local initiatives to manage system capacity. We are working regionally to manage demand, to prioritise urgent care, and to deliver as much planned care as possible.

That includes:

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Working as quickly as possible to implement changes that will expand telehealth to alleviate pressures on ED, and to provide greater after-hours options for patients.

• This includes providing telehealth support for patients waiting in an ED and enabling emergency ambulance services to have access to a GP or nurse over the phone so they can see and treat patients at the scene and reduce unnecessary admissions into hospital.

We’re also making it easier for GPs, ambulance services and Healthline to make direct referrals to radiology, reducing the need for ED admissions.

Opening hours for urgent care will also be extended into evenings and weekends, where there is capacity to do so, so more people can access the care they need.

Local pharmacists are a useful first point for advice and guidance on managing winter illnesses. They can make recommendations on the best over-the-counter medicines.

The Minister also announced the following measures, and you can read the press release here.

Antivirals ▪

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There will be increased access to antiviral medication to those most likely to end up in hospital, making these more widely available as pharmacy-only medications.

• Registered Nurses will also be able send a notification to pharmacies for the Pharmacist to determine whether to dispense antiviral medication to a COVID-19 patient. This will help alleviate pressure on primary care by removing the need for GPs to review every COVID patient that may be eligible for antivirals, by shifting the initial assessment to nurses.

The eligibility criteria is being broadened to enable Māori, Pacific Peoples, anyone over 65, those unvaccinated, immunocompromised, with pre-existing health conditions or a disability to access antiviral medications.

• GP’s will be able to provide back pocket prescriptions for antivirals so atrisk patients can be preapproved and have their prescription ready if needed immediately.

RATs and masks ▪

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Free masks and RATs will be more widely available with RAT collection sites turned into free RAT and mask collection sites. Packs of medical and P2/N95 masks will be provided free along with free RAT kits for everyone from testing centres and in more locations by the end of the week.

Free RATs will be available from all current community providers, including marae, testing stations and local pharmacies.

We also are providing 10 million child-size masks for every year 4-7 student in New Zealand and up to 30,000 masks a week for all other students and school staff.

There will also be extra funding to schools and early childhood services to supports better ventilation over winter.

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People leader actions for the week •

Check in on your teams and if they are doing all they can to look after themselves as we all face challenging winter pressures across the health system. Your district, agency and national intranets will have information and guidance available for you and your teams.

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As always, please share the key messages and updates in today’s edition of this People Leaders update with your teams. They may receive this information from other channels as well, but nothing beats hearing it from their trusted People Leader as well!

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