What’s in this issue?
PRIMARY CARE CLINICAL DIGEST
FEBRUARY 23 2024
Immunisation Pānui February 22 2024
Ruruku – Latest News and Updates from Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora February 22 2024
Changes to Tools Used to Manage COVID-19
Patients Presenting with Dangerously High Lead Blood Levels
Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Available in March 2024
Community Research Latest News and Updates
Toitū Te Tiriti Article
Partners in Primary and Community Care Pānui February 23 2024
Goodfellow Webinars. Workshop and Podcast for Continuing Professional Development
The Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) Stakeholder ConsultationAccreditation Assessment of the New Zealand College of Royal Practitioners (RNZCGP)
Update to International Travel COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate System (ITCVC)
Exploring the Assisted Dying Service
Updates for Pharmacists
Top Weekend Viewing
Immunisation Pānui
February 22 2024
View online
Ruruku – Latest News and Updates from Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora February 22 2024
View online
Changes to Tools Used to Manage COVID-19
To view the latest Immunisation Pānui, see the attached link.
See the attached link for the most recent issue of Ruruku with all the latest updates.
The online tools Te Whatu Ora have used over the last few years have served them well but as they continue to transition healthcare response to COVID-19, so it is managed in a similar way to other public health diseases, their online tools are also evolving to provide people with their health information and tools to manage their health in one place.
Info.health.nz is a newly launched consumer-facing website that provides reliable information and advice for a wide variety of health needs, to the people of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Info.health.nz will help people make informed decisions for themselves and their whānau and give them access to the healthcare services they need. It will also include health information and advice about COVID-19, and become the main source of public information about COVID-19 February 29 2024.
Info.health.nz has been online since last November and there is no longer a need for a dedicated COVID-19 website. Going forward visitors to www.covid19.govt.nz will be redirected to info.health.nz.
The Te Whatu Ora COVID-19 health professional webpage will continue to provide information to the professional sector.
The information and functions previously provided by My Covid Record is now available on My Health Record (https://my.health.nz/). From February 28 2024, people should use My Health Record to report their RAT results, see
previous COVID-19 test results and immunisation records. My Health Record is a new secure website where New Zealanders can view their COVID-19 health information and see their wider immunisation records (back to 2005). It also has the option for some parents to link to their children’s immunisation records.
My Health Record is an important step in the plan to support New Zealanders to access their health information online. Over time, it is expected that more health information will be available on My Health Record, such as current and past medications, lab results and community services, and high use card entitlements.
For more information on My Health Record, please go to the Te Whatu Ora website.
Patients Presenting with Dangerously High Lead Blood Levels
The National Poisons Centre (NPC) and Te Whatu Ora is alerting healthcare practitioners to multiple recent cases of severe lead toxicity associated with the use of some Ayurvedic (traditional Indian medicine) products.
At least eight cases have occurred in different North Island locations over the past three months and have been reported to Medical Officers of Health. To date, most of the patients have been adult males of Indian origin who report taking an Ayurvedic product.
In light of these cases, practitioners are encouraged to be on the look-out for patients who may present with acute lead toxicity. Unfortunately, symptoms are non-specific and patients may present with a variety of gastrointestinal, neurologic, and constitutional complaints. In severe cases, acute lead toxicity can cause seizures, encephalopathy, and death. Within the current cluster, several patients have presented with complaints of abdominal pain with nausea/vomiting or constipation, sometimes with multiple presentations over weeks to months.
The usual initial investigations for these complaints, including imaging and endoscopy, were not revealing a cause for their symptoms. Some of these patients also presented with new onset aenemia with basophilic stippling prompting testing for lead. The presence of basophilic stippling should prompt consideration of lead exposure, however, importantly, the absence of basophilic stippling does not rule out lead exposure.
Therefore, if you encounter a patient of Indian ethnicity with colicky abdominal symptoms without an apparent cause, especially if recurrent or associated with a new aenemia, please screen for exposure by specifically asking about Ayurvedic product use.
Note that sensitivity is required when screening for exposures. Cultural differences, concerns of disapproval from medical providers, or other reasons may contribute to a patient’s reluctance to disclose use of traditional remedies, including Ayurvedic products.
The National Poisons Centre is available 24/7 to provide advice for any cases of known or suspected lead toxicity, and clinical toxicologists can be contacted via the service by calling 0800 764 766.
Notifications to the local Medical Officer of Health are required for blood lead level equal or greater then 0.24 µmol/L, who will investigate exposure pathways and test items that may have contributed to the elevated BLL.
If clinicians consider traditional medicine products are involved in cases of suspected lead toxicity, and have obtained samples from the patient, it would be helpful to gather information about how an individual case obtained the product, such as where the patient obtained the product (locally, or from overseas), the name of product if known, when it was obtained, any product labelling details, patient blood results, and whether any other testing of the product has occurred. Please retain the sample for testing and then contact Medsafe at medclearance@health.govt.nz for advice and instructions about forwarding it on.
Updated COVID-19 Vaccine
Available in March 2024
View online
Community Research Latest News and Updates
View online
Toitū Te Tiriti
See the article
Partners in Primary and Community Care Pānui
February 23 2024
View online
Goodfellow Webinars.
Workshop and Podcast for Continuing Professional Development
More information about lead can be found here.
See the attached link to information about a new vaccine to combat the newer strains of COVID-19 being available to New Zealanders from March 7 2024.
See the attached link to view the first eNews of 2024.
The attached article from the New Zealand Medical Journal gives a very interesting overview on Toitū Te Tiriti.
The latest issue of this newsletter is now available to view online.
The Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) Stakeholder Consultation - Accreditation
Assessment of the New Zealand College of Royal Practitioners (RNZCGP)
Chronic pain: February 27 Register here
Hepatitis elimination and management: March 12 Register here
Female hormone odyssey: March 26 Register here
Don’t miss that ARF diagnosis: April 23 Register here
Sexuality and intimacy F2F workshop: June 24 Places are limited so register early
Thriving in golden years podcast Episode here
Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) accredits and monitors New Zealand vocational medical training and recertification programmes and its associated training providers for doctors within recognised scopes of practice.
MCNZ will soon be undertaking an accreditation assessment of the RNZCGP training programmes, this includes the General Practice Education Programme (GPEP) and Rural Hospital Medicine training programme (RHM). The accreditation process also assesses the recertification programmes delivered by the RNZCGP. As part of each accreditation assessment, MCNZ invites stakeholders to provide feedback on the vocational medical training and recertification programmes and its associated training provider.
Please complete this survey on the RNZCGP vocational medical training and recertification programmes by March 5 2024. Please provide one response to the survey from your organisation.
MCNZ assess vocational medical training and recertification providers against the Accreditation standards for New Zealand training providers of vocational medical training and recertification programmes. Please refer to the standards and website for more information. Aggregated feedback and free text comments from all respondents will be given to the college and accreditation panel members.
Update to International Travel COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate System (ITCVC)
See the update
Exploring the Assisted Dying Service
See the flyer
See attached update on the International Travel COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate System.
A team of reputable researchers at Victoria University of Wellington are seeking patient input into understanding assisted dying services in Aotearoa.
If you are interested in participating, please see the attached flyer. All information is confidential.
Updates for Pharmacists
View online
Top Weekend Viewing
Please see attached link to view Pharmac updates as at February 23 2024.
With the recent release of the new Bob Marley: One Love movie, you’ve probably seen at least one of these, but worth watching again or for the first time for the music alone, especially Queen!
Elvis (Neon/ Apple TV) - explores the life and music of Elvis Presley, seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker. View trailer
Rocket Man (Apple TV/Neon) - a biographical jukebox musical film based on the life and career of British musician Elton John. View trailer
Bohemian Rapsody (Netflix/Disney+) - a biographical musical drama film that focuses on the life of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen, from the formation of the band in 1970 to their 1985 Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium. View trailer