Ma tini, ma mano, ka rapa te whai. By joining together, we will succeed.

Great news! We have been approved by the Ministry of Health as a Covid-19 vaccination site! This means we will be able to vaccinate our registered patients starting from the 28^th July 2021.

At this stage ALL vaccinations will be done from our Beach clinic – 43 Te Moana Road, Waikanae Beach (not our main clinic in Marae Lane), which will become a dedicated vaccination site for foreseeable future. We are now starting to invite those of our patients who are in Group 3 by MyIndici, email and text, to book a spot for their first vaccine. We will book your second vaccination at the time you receive your first jab.

Please note that for each vaccination, you will be required to stay on-site for 20 minutes to be observed for any reactions to the jab, so you will need to factor this into your booking time. We will have water and tea/coffee making facilities on hand, so come with your family/friends/neighbours and have a catch-up while you wait.

Our vaccination team will consist of 4 vaccinators, working 5 days per week (Mon-Fri), 6 hrs per day – our aim is to provide as many vaccinations as safely possible, as quickly as possible! We ask for patience and understanding that we have a large patient base that needs to be vaccinated – you will be vaccinated, we are doing our very best to get this done as expediently as possible.

Parking at our beach clinic – we ask, to minimise parking space, that where possible you come for your jab with family/friends/neighbours. With 4 vaccinators working at the same time we hope to be able to accommodate families/friends/neighbours at the same time – we will even put a cuppa on for you as you need to be observed for 20mins after you’ve been jabbed.

There are 3 ways you can book –

• MyIndici – if you are registered on MyIndici and eligible to book at this stage, you will have received a message from us – please use MyIndici to book your appt. NB: you can book an appt for someone who is not on MyIndici (as long as they are one of our patients), so if you have a spouse, family member or neighbour that you are wanting to book for (providing they are Group 3), you can do so.
• Website – click here to request a booking. Our team will confirm the day/time of the appt when it has been booked. You can request a booking for multiple people on the website, but you will need their DOB to do so. We will then work the bookings so they are at the same time, if possible.
• Call – our team are available for taking calls for those people who do not have the confidence to book over the website, and are not on MyIndici. We ask that you keep these calls away from our peak call times and call after 2pm (NB: we have someone on our phones until 5.30pm each day)

Important note: We ask that you if you are registered on our patient portal, MyIndici, or can use our website, please do so to book, rather than calling, as this will unnecessarily limit our ability to answer calls for those requiring urgent medical care.

Supply of the vaccinate is not guaranteed! We expect that there may be delays in getting vaccines, we ask for your patience if we need to reschedule your appointment at any time – this is totally out of our control, responsibility sits with the Ministry of Health and CCDHB.

Group 3 includes

• All people aged 65 or older
• All disabled people aged 16 or older
• Anyone who is hapū (pregnant)
• Anybody aged between 16-65 with one of these long-term health conditions:

-serious and chronic respiratory conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary
-disease (COPD)
-chronic kidney/renal disease
-diabetes
-coronary heart conditions
-stroke
-hypertension (high blood pressure)
-cancer, excluding basal and squamous skin cancers if not invasive

Please be aware that the rollout of the vaccines is being staged so that those most vulnerable are given their vaccines first. The patient groups are set by the Ministry of Health, not Waikanae Health. In our community, group 2 patients are still being vaccinated.  See groups here.
More information: please take the time to read the information below which has been prepared for the entire Wellington region.

MoH vaccine rollout plan – See here for the latest rollout plans – please note that due to the above delay, timelines may be different. Covid-19 Vaccine: Rollout Plan Poster (health.govt.nz)

COVID-19 Vaccination
The COVID-19 vaccine is free, safe, and effective. Everyone in New Zealand aged 16 or older can get vaccinated before the end of 2021, regardless of residency or citizenship status.
Two doses of the vaccine, at least three weeks apart, will protect you.

How the vaccine works
The vaccine works by teaching your immune system to recognize and fight off the virus. It doesn’t have the virus in it, or anything that can affect your DNA. The vaccine cannot give you the disease.

The vaccine is safe.
Medsafe is the Government organization that registers all medicines in New Zealand. They make sure it is safe to use by assessing all of the research and information from around the world. Medsafe has gone through this process with the COVID-19 vaccine, and they have approved it for New Zealand use.

How many vaccinations will I need and how long does it take?
The vaccine is given as 2 doses 21 days apart so you will need 2 appointments. After the vaccine you will need to stay for 20 minutes to be monitored. Each appointment will take approximately 30-40 minutes, perhaps longer if there are queues.

Flu or COVID- 19 Vaccination first?
It is a good idea not to have the flu vaccination within 2 weeks of a COVID -19 vaccination, purely so we can monitor the side effects of both. If you are due for the COVID-19 vaccine and the flu vaccine, having the COVID-19 vaccine takes priority over having the flu vaccine. If you do not know when you are going to be offered the COVID – 19 vaccine and have not been invited it makes sense to go ahead with the flu vaccination. https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/medicines/c/covid-19-vaccine-and-flu-vaccine/

You can still get your 2021 Influenza Immunisation. If you have been waiting, thinking you would get your Covid vaccination first, with the 6 week delay in the Covid vaccine supply, you should consider getting your flu shot now.

To book please either use the “Arrange an appointment” function at the top of our website, or call our reception team (04 293 6005). Bookings via our patient portal, MyIndici are no longer available for the flu clinics.

For more information and to check if you are eligible for a free vaccination, please go to www.fightflu.co.nz or call 0800 466 863.

From Thursday 1^st of April 2021, we have discontinued our Telephone Nurse phone line.

We want to be clear that this is NOT taking away this valuable nursing service, and you will still be able to get your questions answered. We know that it has been a consistent frustration for our patients to experience long wait times, and over the past few months we have been analyzing the nature of the requests from patients to the nursing team, in order for us to improve our service to you. We have also spoken with other health practices to see how they manage this service. Did you know that many practices do not have nurses on the other end of the phone waiting for patients to call in?

Our nurses report that many patients who become suddenly unwell, or who want to make an appointment with the doctor, think they have to speak to a nurse to arrange an appointment – this is absolutely false and can in fact lead to a longer wait time for your need to be assessed.

Our vision is to be able to effectively assess for urgency, and have set up the following ways you can get in touch with our nurses.

Please do not use the following mechanisms for urgent issues (for example when you are unexpectedly unwell) – call our reception team who will ask you 4-5 yes/no questions so that they can determine if you need to speak with our Triage Nurse (who assesses urgency into both our Urgent Care Unit and Rapid clinics), or if your doctor needs to call you to assess you.  See our overview on management of urgent/same-day appointments here.

We have seen an increase in patients walking in to the clinic to ‘just speak with a nurse for just a moment’. Effective Thursday 1^st of April 2021 this option will not be available – if your need is clinically urgent, you will be assessed by our Triage Nurse (who is attached to our Urgent Care Unit) – please note this service carries a small charge, should you not need to see a Doctor or Nurse Practitioner as a result of your visit. We appreciate it may appear that we have plenty of nurses available, the reality is that you take a nurse away from another patient who may be waiting for their appointment, or who has a more urgent need than you. We ask that you refrain from this practice, and get in touch with us as outlined below.

Please be assured that we have ways that all patients can get in touch with our nurses –

• Email/message the nurse via MyIndici and outline the nature of your question/concern – these messages should be clear about what you are wanting an answer to, but kept as concise as possible, remembering that nurses have full access to your notes. However, please do not just email ‘please call’ as this is not specific enough to determine priority of reply.

In MyIndici, go to Messaging, click on the compose button, select Nurse as Provider and then Admin Nurse from the -Select Provider- box

NB: you can sign up to MyIndici from our website https://waikanaehealth.co.nz/myindici/ or give our team a call (04 293 6005 option 2) – our reception team can get you started and show you some tips & tricks on how to get the best out of MyIndici.

• If you are not on MyIndici and have internet access you can Request a Callback (top right of webpage) via our website https://waikanaehealth.co.nz – select from the drop-down Nurse or clinical query, enter your contact details and Submit
• Call our reception team (04 293 6005 option 1) who can book a telephone consult with our nursing team – please do not be offended if you are asked what you would wish to discuss, as this helps us to prioritise your need
• If you have a general health question you can also call Healthline on 0800 611 116 for 24/7 nurse advice

We are committed to responding as quickly as we can, but wait-times may vary depending on the nature of your query – it may be that our team will need to speak with your doctor before they give you a call back.

Our focus is for responses to these queries generate a call to you by the appropriate nurse, so you do not need to write a bible (for MyIndici) – remember that our nursing team has access to your medical notes – the longer it takes to read your message, the longer the response time may be.

Remember that you can use option (1) and (2) above to also request a call-back from our reception and accounts teams.

Our nursing services are chargeable so please be aware that if the nurse is able to help you over the phone or via MyIndici, then the following charges may apply –