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More Options for After Hours Care
Beginning on the 23rd of January, Ostend Medical Centre will be open from 7:30am on Thursdays and Fridays. This is to create more access to urgent, after hours care on the island and to increase the number of before work and school appointments available. These early morning clinics will be staffed by an Extended Care Paramedic and a GP or Nurse Practitioner, so provide comprehensive care for your whole whānau. Call our reception team on 372 5005 if you’ve been holding off on visiting the doctor due to work and school schedules – we can get you in and out of the clinic and onto the 8:30 ferry with no trouble!
And we hope that you’re just as pleased as we are that Ostend Medical Centre is now subsidising after hours appointments for our patients visiting Waiheke Medical Centre’s After-Hours service at the Red Cross building in Oneroa. This initiative ensures that everyone enrolled at one of the island’s three medical centres pays the same rate for urgent care outside of normal clinic hours.
As a reminder, here’s how it works:
- If you or your family member visits Waiheke Medical Centre for after hours care, you will not be billed at the time of service.
- Waiheke Medical Centre will provide us with a record of your visit within 24 hours and Ostend Medical Centre will then bill you directly at the same rate that patients enrolled with Waiheke Medical Centre/Piritahi Hau Ora pay for their after hours appointments.
The rates for after hours care for patients enrolled on the island are below. Please note that Ostend Medical Centre is providing additional funding to the After-Hours service to make these consistent fees possible for our enrolled patients.
And for those appointments that can be managed through video consult, we are still encouraging our patients to use Ka Ora Telecare as a convenient, affordable, at home option for after hours care. We had great feedback from patients who used this service over the Christmas holidays and you can learn more about how it works here: https://kaora.co.nz/app/.
Diabetes and Your Health
Following on from a previous article about the newly funded Continuous Glucose Monitors, we are continuing to educate our patients about the risks and management of diabetes. We’ll be bringing you more information in future newsletters around the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, what symptoms to watch out for, and how you can work with our clinicians to manage pre-diabetes and diabetes if you are diagnosed.
Your pancreas is the organ that produces insulin, which assists the sugar in your blood stream to get into the cells around your body. If your pancreas can’t produce enough insulin, or your body can’t use the insulin properly, and the sugar cannot get into the cells, it will remain in your blood stream causing a high blood glucose (sugar) level.
Your blood capillaries, or vessels, do not like to have excess sugar in them and will die if levels remain too high for too long. The finer the capillaries, the more easily they can be damaged, which is why you often link diabetes with blindness, as the small vessels in your retina behind your eye become permanently damaged. This excess sugar can also lead to an increased risk for chronic wounds or ulcers that do not heal and become necrotic, resulting in the amputation of lower toes or limbs. In addition, high blood pressure, disordered cholesterol levels and risk for cardiovascular disease go hand in hand with diabetes.
Ostend Medical Centre’s New Nail Service
As we age, trimming our toenails can become a very challenging task. Toenails often become thicker and harder to cut and older adults don’t always have the flexibility to get into the right position to cut them. This can lead to significant discomfort, reduce mobility, and cause infection.
To help with this, OMC is launching a toenail cutting service for seniors on Wednesday 29 January. The ‘nail bar’ will run every Wednesday from 9:30-11:30am and will be staffed by our wonderful Health Care Assistant, Ani. The cost is $30 for a 20-minute appointment and the service will run from Waiheke Health Trust, located at 5 Belgium Street behind St John Ambulance. If you’d like to book in, please call the Health Trust on 372 8893. The service is open to anyone on Waiheke, so feel free to spread the word to friends who are enrolled at other medical centres on the island.
Welcome Back to Dr Zoe Douglass!
It’s always a celebration at Ostend Medical Centre when Dr Zoe Douglass arrives back on the motu to help with our busy summer season. Zoe will be with us onsite through the third week of February, so if you’d like to check in with her in person, call Reception today to book your appointment.
Once things get a bit quieter on the island, Zoe will return home to the UK, but will still be providing virtual early morning appointments on Wednesdays and Fridays, as part of our commitment to making your health care as convenient as possible.
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Kaitiakitanga
Work as guardians in client care with passion and advocacy.
Whanaungatanga
Collaborate as a team to support our community.
Manaakitanga
Care and respect for people regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.
Pukengatanga
Encompass ongoing learning and development to provide a
knowledgeable and skilled team.
Kotahitanga
Be responsive and seek
innovative solutions.
