Our Virtual Clinical Hub is part of the solution healthcare needs to rapidly improve patient access to care by offering timely expert virtual care. We free up the time of general practice staff, taking on the overflow.

The healthcare sector is understaffed and overstretched, and the people who often need care the most – Māori, rural communities, high needs patients, unenrolled patients, and young people – face significant access barriers.

We’re already doing some exciting work with two general practices in the Far North:

• We’re supporting Te Hiku Hauora with Medtech inbox management. This means GPs don’t have to read through everything and do routine administrative tasks, saving them lots of time. We’re also doing patient recalls for immunisations and cervical smears for Te Hiku Hauora.
• We’re supporting Hauora Hokianga with virtual consults.

Read more about our work with these practices.

There are also exciting opportunities for the Virtual Clinical Hub to help address long-standing issues such as providing clinical care for patients after discharge from hospital, improving access to care for people who don’t engage with general practice, providing better access to care for other underserved groups, such as homeless people, and stepping in to help providers who need short-term support.

An important part of our mahi is improving access to care for people who aren’t enrolled with a general practice. Northland has about 11,000 people who aren’t currently enrolled with a GP. It’s a big problem, and we’re tackling it by:

• Collecting and analysing feedback from unenrolled people about their experiences and their reasons for not being enrolled. This qualitative research will inform tailored solutions to help people get enrolled and stay enrolled.
• Providing case-by-case support to help people in urgent need access the healthcare system.

We’re also engaging with our partners to develop solutions for the homeless and people in aged residential care.

Our Virtual Clinical Hub is a flexible resource that can be tailored to improve short-term access to healthcare in most situations. To discuss how the Hub may be able to help you, contact our Network Support Manager, Cristina Ross.

Where it all began

The Virtual Clinical Hub project developed out of our successful COVID-19 Care in the Community Clinical Hub, which we launched in February 2022 to provide support and leadership for general practices managing COVID-19 patients. Since the beginning of COVID, the Clinical Hub has provided vital overflow capacity and weekend cover for overstretched practices, as well as caring for unenrolled patients. It has also led the sector by developing processes, guidance, tools, and providing information that enabled general practice to work effectively as part of a coordinated regional response to offer wraparound care for people isolating at home with COVID-19. Alongside Northland’s iwi manaaki hubs, this unique facility is credited with managing COVID patients successfully at home and protecting our hospitals and general practices from becoming overwhelmed. And it’s evolving to offer a way of addressing whānau need with a virtual care solution that reaches far beyond COVID-19.