Primary Care – Public Health Expert, University of Otago, New Zealand

Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care

Wednesday, May 18th, 2022 | carra86p | 2 Comments

A/Prof Ben Gray*

Gray B. Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care. Public Health Expert Blog.18 May 2022. https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/pubhealthexpert/government-funding-of-interpreters-in-primary-care-is-needed-to-ensure-quality-care/

The pandemic has highlighted many problems in the NZ health system. This blog will address the question of availability of interpreters for people with limited English proficiency (LEP). This is now funded within hospitals. It is funded in Primary Care in Auckland and Nelson but not other regions. It became clear that interpreters were needed to enable Primary Care to look after Covid-19 patients in the community and the Ministry of Health has provided central funding throughout the country for this purpose. If it is acknowledged that funded interpreters are needed for Covid-19 patients, why are they not available for other conditions?

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Promoting physical activity through the prescription of smartphone apps in primary care: Likely to produce health gains and cost-savings

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 | carra86p | No Comments

Dr Leah Grout, Kendra Telfer, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak*

Over 40% of NZ adults are insufficiently physically active. In this blog we summarise our recently published modelling work that suggests that the prescription of smartphone apps for physical activity promotion in primary care could benefit health and save millions in health sector costs for NZ. Nevertheless, this type of intervention should ideally occur in conjunction with societal-wide shifts that support more walking and cycling, as these are likely to generate much larger health gains and cost-savings.

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Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care

Promoting physical activity through the prescription of smartphone apps in primary care: Likely to produce health gains and cost-savings

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