Category: Aotearoa

Best Case Ever

This case comes from Dr Alex McLeod RHMS Taupō. ...

Kotahitagna 7

Management of post-partum haemorrhage is encountered not infrequently in rural hospital medicine. Administration of TXA is part of local protocols, cheap, easy to use and widely available. Thanks for this appraisal of the evidence Kotahitagna!...

Salute to the Pōhutukawa and the West Coast.

It’s Christmas. I’m touring the north Island with family in tow.  Blooming pōhutukawa line the Coromandel coastline.  I’m curious about its evolution, uniquely suited to the landscape, shaped by millennia of slow and steady adaptations.  Courageously reaching for the coral sea. The New Zealand Christmas tree.  I wondered how many versions of the Christmas tree...

Time to surgery: Comparison between rural and metropolitan hospitals.

Another great read from Otago Universities LOFP. Researchers compared the length of time to receive surgery, the proportion that receive surgery within national guidelines and the corresponding mortality rates at 30 and 120 days for patients who present to the DHB’s rural hospitals vs Waikato hospital. Patients who presented...

Regional-rural programme at the University of Auckland

In 2008 The university of Auckland introduced Pūkawakawa. A year 5 regional immersion programme based in Northland NZ.  Early outcomes show that postgraduates who participated in the program are very likely to be working in rural and regional areas with an intention to work in general practice and rural medicine....

Pathways and Pipelines; the road to Rural Generalism

At this years NZRHN Rural Hospital Summit in Wellington, I was fortunate to hear Dr Kati Blattner speak. Amongst other achievements she is a clinician and academic instrumental in making vocational training for rural remote generalist doctors what it is today. Undertaking the Rural Hospital Training Programme in parallel to...

The agitated patient

Here in Taupo we are fortunate to have regular educational simulations run by our resident ED specialist Dr Jared Bayless. Thanks to Dr Jeremy Webber and Andrew Tattle for workshopping how the agitated patient is cared for in the ED. In an aggressive conflict situation, the best advice is...

Breaking Bad (News)

Delivering bad news in a compassionate way can make this difficult situation easier to cope with for patients, their families and clinicians themselves. Thanks to Hailey and Kendall who helped us workshop these skills at Taupo Hospital. SPIKES The SPIKES model was first published in The Oncologist in 2000 as a...