Plans for integrated healthcare
Giving high-needs mental health patients quick and easy access to psychiatrists is one way a new plan is improving health services in Auckland’s north and west.
The Waitemata Primary and Community Services Plan was officially launched on May 18 but $5.1 million worth of projects were already under way.
The plan was believed to be the largest collaboration of its nature in the country, jointly produced by Waitemata District Health Board and primary health organisations Waitemata PHO and Procare Health. The DHB funded health services and provided hospital-based services, while the PHOs provided care through general practices.
While Waitemata had one of the longest life expectancies in the world, at 84.3 years, the plan was needed to make improvements in certain areas, Waitemata DHB deputy director of funding Tim Wood said.
One in five people experienced mental illness, inequalities for Maori and Pacific people included a life expectancy 6.3 years less for Maori and 5.3 years less for Pacific people, and the health sector had ‘‘huge’’ financial constraints, Wood said.
The plan was needed so the agencies could provide a single, integrated healthcare system, DHB chief executive Dale Bramley said.
‘‘At the end of the day, they [patients] don’t care who the providers are.’’
The funding included $1.4m for primary mental health, with 800 extra packages of care for highneeds and complex patients. This included giving GPs direct access to psychiatrists, Bramley said.
John Ross, chief executive of Waitemata PHO, said treating mental illness was one of the greatest challenges facing general practices.
In future, the funding would focus on the physical health of mental health patients.
The current funding also included $150,000 to screen Maori for abdominal aortic aneurysm, a potentially fatal ballooning in a major blood vessel.
38 had already been detected.
Future funding would be used to detect abnormal heart speeds in Maori.