Kia ora koutou,  

Thank you once again for your hard mahi and leadership managing patients with COVID-19 in your community as we progress towards the post-pandemic management of COVID-19 alongside other communicable diseases.

We are writing to update you on the revised Model of Care for Covid-19 from 1 October 2023, as well as an update on pulse oximeters - please share this information with all your relevant stakeholders. 

Public Communications for the revised Model of Care for COVID-19 

Collateral 

In the link below you will find a range of public collateral to use in your location, whether it is a practice, Hauora provider location or pharmacy.   

LINK TO PUBLIC COLLATERAL 

This includes:  

• A poster (two formats A3 and A4) 
• Social tile for you to use on your social media 
• A flyer to provide to patients if further information is requested  

You can download each item of collateral by clicking on the image, saving it to your desktop and then printing or posting.  Please register for the portal if you haven’t done so already. 

There is also an option to order printed versions of this collateral (A3 and A4 posters, and flyer) from Bluestar from Monday 25 September, following the process below:   

• Go to https://portal.bluestar.co.nz/login/moh_vaccine 
• If you already have an account, login.  
• If you do not have an account, click on the “Need to Register?” link and follow the prompts. You will receive an authorisation email to activate your account. Once you have activated your account, you can login, using your email as your username.  
• Click on the “Catalogue” tab at the top left of the page.  
• The collateral is housed under the “GoWell Campaign” category, click on the link on the left hand side of the page.  
• Choose the collateral you want printed, enter the quantity and click “Add”. 
• Once you’ve entered your order, either click on the cart to review and amend, or click on “Place Order” (top right of the page). 
• Follow the prompts and complete your order.   

Contact details are posted on the portal home page if you have questions. 

Narrative 

Below is a narrative (in italics) about the transition of COVID-19 care for you to use on your website, if one is required. 

Covid Care to focus on eligibility for antiviral medicines  

Eligibility for antiviral medicine to treat COVID-19 will become the key focus of primary, Hauora provider and community pharmacy care from 1st October.  This will ensure the people who are most at risk of serious outcomes from the virus receive the support they need.  

The continued and greater focus on antiviral therapies reflects the transition to managing COVID-19 in the same way as other acute respiratory conditions. 

People who are not at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19 can still access related healthcare at their doctor, hauora provider or pharmacy, but they will be asked to pay just like they do for other health services.

News item 

We also intend to post a news item next week on the Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora websites, in their news section.  This can also be used for your own website news section if you choose to do so. 

Testing 

To add to previous information provided, please take note of the following additional points:   

• The Healthlink and ESR forms will not be changing. 
• As from the 1 October, if you use information from either the Healthlink or ESR forms to assist with the generation of invoices to claim for RAT or PCR testing/consultation funding, please ensure: 
  • this is only extracted from the tick box “please select if patient is eligible for antivirals”  

Pulse oximeters 

The funded provision of pulse oximetry to Primary Care from 1 October 2023 will end in line with planned funding changes for COVID-19.  

Pulse oximeters were introduced during an international surge in the Delta variant of COVID-19 in 2019 however, there is little evidence to support their continued use in measuring deterioration with the Omicron variant. This has been helped in part with the innovations of vaccination and antiviral therapies.  

There are a number of pulse oximeters for order should you like to use them in your practice or for specific patients. These can be ordered through your standard ordering channels until stock is exhausted.  

Thank you for reading this information and please respond to this email if you have any questions. 

Ngā mihi nui 

Jonathan Tudor 

On behalf of The Care in the Community Team