Permeable boundaries? Patient perspectives on space and time in general practice waiting rooms.

This paper considers an under-examined space in primary health care - the reception area/waiting room. This space can be challenging to negotiate, particularly for those who experience social marginalisation. We begin by situating the significance of the 'entry into the health care setting' in the patient journey in terms of time as well as space.

The care work of general practice receptionists.

INTRODUCTION The care work of general practice receptionists has received limited research attention, despite receptionists position at the beginning of patients' journeys in many health care systems. We examine receptionists' perceptions of their work and the opportunities and constraints they experience in caring for patients while providing administrative support to practices. METHODS Data were collected in focus group interviews with 32 receptionists from urban and rural general practices in the Auckland and Northland regions of New Zealand.

Identifying eHealth Opportunities to Support Medication Adherence - Findings of a Focus Group Study.

Background: The burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among New Zealand (NZ) indigenous people (Māori) is well recognized. A major challenge to CVD risk management is to improve adherence to long-term medications.

Objectives: To elicit patients' and providers' perspectives on how to support Māori with high CVD risk and low medication adherence to achieve better adherence.

Cardiovascular disease risk management for Māori in New Zealand general practice.

Introduction: Māori are overrepresented in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality and morbidity statistics in New Zealand (NZ).

Aim: To examine cardiovascular risk (CVR) assessment and management for Māori, utilising Caring Does Matter (CDM) initiative data.

Methods: Using 16 general practices' electronic medical records—which include ethnicity data—the rate of CVR screening, CVD medication treatment and adherence levels, and physiological measures for Māori patients at high CVR (≥15% five-year risk of a cardiovascular event) were compared to findings for Pacific and non-Māori/non-Pacific patients.

The place of receptionists in access to primary care: Challenges in the space between community and consultation.

At the point of entry to the health care system sit general practice receptionists (GPRs), a seldom studied employment group. The place of the receptionist involves both a location within the internal geography of the clinic and a position within the primary care team. Receptionists literally 'receive' those who phone or enter the clinic, and are a critical influence in their transformation from a 'person' to a 'patient'.

General practice ethnicity data: evaluation of a tool.

Introduction: There is evidence that the collection of ethnicity data in New Zealand primary care is variable and that data recording in practices does not always align with the procedures outlined in the Ethnicity Data Protocols for the Health and Disability Sector. In 2010, The Ministry of Health funded the development of a tool to audit the collection of ethnicity data in primary care. The aim of this study was to pilot the Ethnicity Data Audit Tool (EAT) in general practice.

Community participation in primary care: what does it mean 'in practice'?

Introduction: The New Zealand 2001 Primary Health Care Strategy requires primary health organisations (PHOs) to involve communities in their governance and be responsive to communities' needs. It is less clear what the implications of this policy are for general practices. This paper presents key findings from a national study undertaken in the wake of the 2001 primary care reforms on the purpose and process of involving communities in primary health care.

The health promotion shift into Primary Health Organisations: Implications for the health promotion workforce.

Introduction: Reconciling the primary care sector's traditional concern for individual health outcomes with a population health approach is integral to the implementation of New Zealand's Primary Health Care Strategy, and a key challenge for health promotion in New Zealand. The purpose of this study was to examine the views of health promoters, their funders and managers toward the implementation of the Primary Health Care Strategy's health promotion agenda.

Methods: Focus groups and interviews were carried out with 64 health promoters and 21 health sector managers and planners and funders over the 12 months beginning March 2008.

Educating public health physicians for the future: a current perspective from Aotearoa New Zealand.

Persisting, and in some cases widening, inequalities in health within and between countries present significant challenges to the focus and practice of contemporary public health, and by association, to public health education. As public health physicians and academic educators of medically- and non-medically trained public health practitioners, we call for a radical re-think of current approaches to public health medicine education and training in order to address these challenges. The public health physicians of the future, we argue, require not merely technical knowledge and skills but also a set of values that underpin a commitment to ethical principles, social equity, human rights, compassionate action, advocacy and leadership.

Putting population health into practice through primary health care.

The introduction of the Primary Health Care Strategy has offered opportunities to take a population health approach to the planning and delivery of primary health care. The lack of a common understanding of population health between primary care and public health has been the prompt for a group of academics and practitioners to join forces and produce this statement on a population health approach to primary care, through primary health care. This paper takes the position that the features of a population health approach (such as a concern for equity, community participation, teamwork and attention to the determinants of health) enhance general practice care rather than undermine it.

Assessing and developing community participation in primary health care in Aotearoa New Zealand: a national study.

Aims: This study aimed to develop and test a framework and tool for assessing and developing community participation in Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) in New Zealand.

Methods: A qualitative study completed in three phases: semi-structured interviews with 42 key stakeholders in the primary care sector; development of and consultation on a draft toolkit, which included a PHO review process; and piloting the toolkit in four different types of PHOs.

Results: A toolkit entitled Community Participation: A Resource Kit and Self-Assessment Tool for PHOs (CP Toolkit for PHOs) was developed, which contains a set of resources for organisational self-review and a framework for community participation under the six headings: Organisational Structure, Maori Responsiveness, Governance and Management Processes, Use of Resources, Links to the Wider Community, and Consultation and Decision-Making.