The appetite for primary care clinicians in Te Tai Tokerau to gain more knowledge and cement connections was proven when more than 60 GPs, practice nurses, Health Improvement Practitioners, community pharmacists, dietitians & paramedics gathered for the Te Tai Tokerau Primary Care Diabetes Symposium on Saturday 30 September – despite it clashing with an All Blacks Rugby World Cup match.After attending similar conferences around New Zealand Te Whatu Ora Specialist Diabetes, Clinical Nurse Specialists and Mentor's Joan van Rooyn and Sarah Wallace wanted to provide an educational forum for their colleagues in primary health that specifically covered issues and topics they are seeing out in practice.Together with Clinical Nurse Manager Amanda Brown, they specifically worked to design a symposium with a Northland flavour that catered to the needs of our community and the practitioners who care for them.Because Health Fund PLUS managed all the finances and administration, they could focus their time on the Symposium content, which was very well received by attendees.One person said it was by far the best training they had been to since being out of the hospital system. Amanda said several people told her it felt like the first big face-to-face event that they had been to since the pandemic."The gold in this event was not just the amazing presentations, but the opportunity to korero with other people – particularly for our primary care practitioners who don't always get to link in with other people."We chose topics that our colleagues in primary care are experiencing an increase in. For example, since COVID-19, there's been an increase in diabetes presentations, so we asked Dr Nicole McGrath to speak about Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood (LADA)."We also felt there were misconceptions around who could and couldn't be referred to the Te Whatu Ora in Te Tai Tokerau Bariatric surgery programme – so this was an opportunity for our Bariatric surgery team to present and connect with primary care about their updated service."Attendees also heard about the latest diabetes technology, diet trends and medications, and then, at the end of the day, there was time for a Q&A panel discussion.Thanks to sponsorship from Boehringer Ingelheim, Pharmaco Diabetes, Novo Nordisk, Mediray Diabetes, Hato Hone St John and NZMS Diabetes Dexcom, the team were able to provide the event for free, including a catered lunch, which Amanda said was very important to them considering the attendees had to give up their weekend to advance their knowledge for the benefit of their patients.Health Fund PLUSHealth Fund PLUS is a partnership between Te Whatu Ora in Te Tai Tokerau, and Northland Community Foundation and provides a way for people to give to the DHB by way of donations or endowments.These donations or gifts enable us to get the ‘optional extras’ in equipment and services for the DHB that can make all the difference in providing the best quality healthcare possible.Note that donations and gifts are never used as an alternative to Government funding.Find out more about Health Fund PLUS, or make a donation, here: Health Fund PLUS - Northland Community Foundation
