Wednesday 25th March Update

Opening Hours

Our opening hours have now changed to Monday - Friday open 9am - 5pm, and Saturdays 9am-12pm.

(This allows for staff meeting and admin time 8am - 9am).

Appointments will be scheduled between 9am-12pm, and 2pm-5pm.

All consults will be via phone or video, unless the doctor or nurse advises you to come in.

Waiting Room Policy

We have the front door locked so that only patients we are expecting will be allowed in. Please bring a mask if you have one, and we will get you to use hand sanitiser on entry.

Flu Vaccines

We will keep you posted. We are currently vaccinating our highest risk patients, and then will start taking appointments for a dedicated flu vaccine clinic (with the aim of minimising person to person contact).

Routine Immunisations, Depo-Proveras, etc

We will schedule these between 12pm-2pm Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Phone Communications

We are struggling to cope with both inbound and outbound calls due to external network congestion. Please keep trying or leave a message and we will get back to you.

Script requests

We have dealt with an unprecedented number of script requests this week, and have been trying to action these as fast as we can. Pharmacies are also overloaded, so expect a 48-72 hour turnaround for routine scripts

COVID19 Alert Level 4

You can rest assured that we will be remaining open as an essential service, however we will continue trying to reduce face to face contact wherever possible.

Stay calm and Be Kind!

Mon 23rd March Update

Due to the Level 3 and impending Level 4 COVID-19 status we are currently postponing all lower priority medical services - for at least the next 4 weeks, or until government restrictions are lifted.

Flu Vaccines are currently being deferred for well patients - we still have plenty of time to start giving these before the Flu season starts (usually around May). If you have a significant medical condition, please contact the nurses and we will try to arrange this for you.

From now, all consultations will be via phone or video by default. We will ask you to come in for assessment if needed, to reduce the number of people coming through the waiting room.

You will also notice that we only have a few chairs in the waiting room now, with 2 metres between each seat.

Current charges are:

$19 for Faxed scripts (we are currently faxing all scripts or dropping them to the pharmacy downstairs)

$25 for Doctor Phone/Video Consults under 5 minutes

Normal consult charge for consultations over 5 minutes

From next week (30th March 2020) we will temporarily be reducing our opening hours from 9am - 5pm. We will continue to open Saturdays for now.

Thanks for your patience and understanding during these trying times!

COVID-19 and Flu Vaccine Update

COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

It's been a big weekend for us at HFD preparing for the week! We have been advised to reduce face to face consultations by 70% (see NZ Herald article https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12318785) And advice from the NZ College of GPs; https://rnzcgp.org.nz/RNZCGP/News/College_news/2020/GPs-open-for-business.aspx Our current plan is to move as many consults as possible to phone or video consults, to reduce any potential community transmission of COVID-19. We will try to save 'in person' visits for things that can't wait, or things that have to be done in person.  To book a phone, video or face-to-face consult, please call reception, our nursing team, or via the contact form on our website: https://www.hobsonvillefamilydoctors.co.nz/contact We expect that the situation will change frequently, so please check our website for updates (we'll be doing this daily!) We also recommend keeping yourself up to date using the Ministry of Health website: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus Or the NZ Government official COVID19 page: https://covid19.govt.nz/

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Influenza Vaccines

Flu vaccines are now available. The Ministry of Health has ordered significantly more vaccines this year, to avoid the shortages experienced in 2019.  We are currently vaccinating anyone 65 years and over, or anyone with a medical condition (check https://www.fightflu.co.nz/ to see if you're eligible).  We have given over 200 vaccines since Wednesday when they arrived, and have almost run out of stock. We should have more stock by the end of the week. We are planning on having Saturday Flu Vaccine clinics, and looking into other options to reduce any potential for community transmission of COVID19 - we will announce this on our website and Facebook page.  We are also going to allow people to wait in their cars after their flu vaccine for 15 minutes (if they have previously had it with no reaction), rather than the waiting room, to reduce the chances of any possible COVID19 community transmission.

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New Team Members

We're very pleased to have Dr Canaan Aumua (creator of the Mitara Measles chatbot) working part-time with us this year, while he completes his Masters of Public Health. He is working Saturday mornings and variable days throughout the week.   Dr Gretchen Laubscher has also recently joined us, working Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays (and will soon be increasing her hours further).  We also have two new nurses - Mel (who was previously working in Waitakere Emergency Department) and Ali (currently covering Angela and Kims's maternity leave).  On reception, Chloe and Leverne have recently joined us.

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Closing to New Enrolments

After extensive deliberation, we have decided to temporarily place new patient enrolments on hold, from the 1st of May 2020. We have grown so much in the past 4 years, but we need some time to consolidate! Family members of existing patients are still welcome to enrol, but other new patients will be placed on a waiting list.