PMAANZ Matters - e-Newsletter
A word from our Secretary - Heidi Bubendorfer
Kia ora
Welcome to the 2023 June edition of the PMAANZ newsletter.
In this newsletter we have interesting articles from MAS and He Ako Hiringa. You will also find Michelle’s PMAANZ Chair report fully informative on what has been happening in the health sector and PMAANZ.
GPLF, in conjunction with PMAANZ and other health entities have sent a written response to the Capitation Funding decision to the National Director of Commissioning at Te Whatu Ora; the responding email is included in this newsletter.
The Executive, as usual has been busy in their specific domains, so head to this section to hear what they have been up to.
Practice Manager Specialist of the Year (PMSOY) nominations are open, so go to the PMAANZ website and nominate a colleague or ask someone to nominate you – don’t be shy! It is a great distinction for your CV, plus you would receive some great prizes and acknowledgments.
And last but not least, we all need our down time, it’s all about chilling out.. so, head to the books and movies recommendations section right at the very end.
Stay safe and well everybody ❤
Warmest regards
Heidi Bubendorfer| PMAANZ Executive National Secretary
A word from our Chair - Michelle Te Kira
Tenā koutou katoa
Another year is going by so fast, and I know for many of us it has again been difficult times personally and in General Practice/Allied and Community Health Services.
The Executive continues to work hard on behalf of our membership, continuing to represent our voice at a national level and there have been some hot topics for discussion this year including the new health reform, Pae Ora, localities, pay parity, workforce issues and funding, oh and it’s an election year.
PMAANZ national update
As Chair I have continued to ensure our involvement in all the above issues with the other national bodies. I take note of the many queries from our members and include these in discussions around these tables. PMAANZ as an organisation has great support and works collaboratively with the respective entities, and we will continue to do so as we continue to have our voices listened to in Government.
We also continue to work with other agencies who seek our advice and input into new systems, by establishing working groups with ACC, linking with UNEp and AAPM for future projects together.
Conference
The planning for our PMAANZ annual Conference to be held on the 14th to 16th September, is well underway. The conference will be held at the wonderful Te Pae venue in Christchurch, the first time back in Christchurch in 10 years! All is going to plan and to budget, but there are still some exhibitors’ spaces to fill and some more sponsorship required to meet our targets. If you know of anyone or any business that would like to contribute and support please contact the wonderful Jen Kaponga at conference@pmaanz.org.nz
The PMAANZ conference program this year has been based off feedback from our survey last year and covers topics and industry-based speakers/sessions with some amazing innovative guests as well, and for the first time in many years the Minister of Health will be addressing our conference on the Friday. We also have an amazing programme for receptionists and an impressive master class scheduled.
We hope to have as many of our wonderful PMAANZ members attend the conference to support our annual event and, of course, to have an amazing time in Christchurch with your colleagues and friends. The conference team, Sonya (Branch Chair of Christchurch) and her team are working incredibly hard to make it a great event. So we look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible! Please visit our website for more information.
https://pmaanz.org.nz/conference/
Membership
This year, PMAANZ’s organisational goals have been focused on continuing to grow our membership and continuing to rise. PMAANZ provides regular and timely information to all our members via our social media platforms, websites, newsletters, and branch meetings. PMAANZ has established some important relationships in the health sector, and we aim to provide as much feedback in a timely fashion to keep all our members up to date.
The new PMAANZ membership structure passed at the last AGM, has proven to help larger organisations join and have access to our resources and our membership continues to grow weekly, which is great to see. We value your feedback on anything else we can do to keep you, our members, involved. Karen Greer, PMAANZ executive for membership, has, in her own time, made several site visits to practices when on annual leave. This worked really well for both parties and is something we would like to do more of in the future, connecting with practices and also seeing the amazing mahi they are doing in our communities. Thanks Karen you are a star.
Education
Education is important to us and our re-connection with UNE Partnerships has meant our members can access a range of specifically design courses for Practice Managers and Administrators https://www.pmaanz.org.nz/education/une-partnership/ . PMAANZ also provides mentorship services for practice managers looking to grow in their role, as well as entry level KASF (Knowledge and Skills Framework) papers for new administrators. Niomi Fleming holds the executive Education portfolio and has the wealth of knowledge and passion to progress education in health management. If you would like any more information, or help, contact her at education@pmaanz.org.nz
New members
For new PMAANZ members and for those thinking of joining us, the wonderfully experienced Karen Greer will be welcoming new members as well as guiding them on how to make the most of our unique membership and benefits. For anyone thinking of joining PMAANZ, you can contact Karen on membership@pmaanz.org.nz . Karen has a hands-on approach, so don’t be surprised if you get a welcome phone call, or even a visit from Karen!
The Executive
Mary Ford and Heidi Bubendorfer continue to work behind the scenes in supporting my role, being bossed around by me, pushed out of their comfort zones (especially Mary) and have had a huge impact on ensuring our organizational goals are being met. We have worked for nearly a year with our Branches to improve the banking structure; our goal was to make it easier for Branches as well as our Treasurer, there were many difficulties with the current system. But we are nearly there with this project and we trust we will emerge with a slicker and easier banking system.
Finally, Carole continues to be the backbone of our organisation keeping our website and social media pages up to date as well as organising the executive team, we would be lost without her, trust me not an easy task.
On a personal note…
This year has been very difficult at times with huge work commitments, the loss of my father and major surgery. But on the upside, I still managed to have a fab trip to Rarotonga AND got engaged in between keeping connected with whanau and friends. This year will be my last year as Chair and as an executive member, completing my 6 years on the board. So, I will see more travel in my agenda very soon - oh and a wedding!
I will take the opportunity at Conference to address my time, the growth and experience I have gained as an Executive Board member and the connections I have made, which have been incredible for me both personally and professionally. This position has also helped guide my practice team through the changes and many challenges in our sector.
New Executive Board members needed
We will be looking for three new members this year to join our amazing executive team, I encourage any of you who would like the opportunity to join our team. It opens doors, pushes you at times to do things outside the square and is immensely rewarding. I got talked into becoming a member thinking it was for one year – so it must have been good to keep me here 6 years! Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this opportunity, which can be life changing.
We look forward to seeing you all in Christchurch in September - the gala dinner is going to be so much fun.
Hei konā mai
Welcome to our newest members
The Executive would like to warmly welcome the following new PMAANZ members. We look forward to meeting you in person, and hope that you engage fully and benefit greatly from your membership.
- Robyn Tulia
- Greg Fleming
- Kylie Morton
- Rakhi Jaison
- Rachael Ward
- Lynsay Hunt - welcome back!
- Merrin Jack
- Elise Welford
- Linda Downey
- Rebecca Ihaka
- Jo Sanford
- Janette Dallas
- Mandy Bowden
- Bronwyn Cook
- Karen French
- Catherine Ryan
- Vin Kaur - welcome back!
- Karl Andrews
- Rebecca Turner
- Jane Taylor
- Glen Dunkerley
- Kath Tulloch
- Sandeep Bhatt
- Bonnie Mitchell
- Marian Rillstone
- Julie Clarke
- Robbyn Bateman
- Alana Singer
- Catherine Montgomery
- Purvi Sethi
- Sophie King
- Jacques Schubert
Business Structures and Agreements
The recent Supreme Court judgement in Ryan v Health and Disability Commissioner is relevant to health professionals who operate in a group practice. In this case Moore Street Medical Centre was found to be liable for the acts of one of its General Practitioner owners relating to a breach of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights. Dr Ryan and Dr Spark effectively operated independent practices with separate patient registers and bank accounts but shared the costs for practice administration services and traded under the single trade name of Moore Street Medical Centre. As such the Court felt they presented to the public as a single medical services provider.
We know this ‘cost-share’ independent practice structure is common in group practices. If you are unsure what impact this case will have on your practice structure you should seek advice and also check to see if your practice professional indemnity protection covers vicarious liability.
What we have seen over the last 10 years is that many group practices have changed from a cost share structure to a ‘single business’ profit share where GP working owners are paid for their GP work, and profits are shared based on shareholding.
Why change?
Prior to this Supreme Court decision, practices were changing their structure and business model for many reasons including:
- Simplified accounting and easier to manage compliance.
- Less barriers to introduce team-based models of care, like the healthcare home service model.
- Easier succession planning.
We’ve helped many practices to change their business model over the years and what appears to be the most equitable and easiest to understand model for them is one where:
- Working owners are shareholder employees,
- Their remuneration is based on their GP work in the practice; and
- Profits are received for their investment in the practice i.e. their shareholding.
Our view is this model is also aligned with succession planning for the next generation of GP owners. Being a director/equal shareholder in a GP owned group practice with flexible working arrangements and good governance and business management capability appeals to younger GPs. We now see GP directors with equal ownership and profit sharing, and variable remuneration based on sessions worked, like non-owners. This also simplifies the valuation process for the entry and exit of director shareholders.
GP remuneration
As shareholder employees, the working owners need to agree how they will be remunerated for their GP work in the practice. Under the cost-share model working owners receive most of their income based on their own personal work, usually on a ‘fee for service’ basis, similar to a % commission payment paid to non-owner GP contractors and employees. However, over the last 20 years we have seen a significant trend away from paying non-owner GPs on a % commission basis.
Our most recent GP remuneration survey, published in December, had 19% of GP contractors being paid a % commission and only 3% of employee GPs being paid a % commission. For contractors 41% were paid an hourly rate and 38% were paid a sessional rate with 2% being paid an amount for each patient seen. For non-owner employee GPs 46% were paid an hourly rate, 31% were paid a salary, 19% were paid a sessional rate and 1% were paid an amount for each patient seen.
As part of our HealthyPractice service we have information on business structures, succession planning and changing your business model. We also have template practice and shareholder agreements for most group practice structures. You can contact our MAS HealthyPractice team on 0800 800 627 or email business@mas.co.nz.
Shaun Phelan
Business Advisory Manager, MAS
This article is of a general nature and is not a substitute for professional and individually tailored business or legal advice. © Medical Assurance Society New Zealand Limited 2023.
CQI Toolkit - A new resource from He Aka Hiring
He Ako Hiringa has recently released a comprehensive, easy-to-use, continuous quality improvement (CQI) resource. This free CQI Toolkit can be used to guide your practice team through a quality improvement or audit activity.
Designed with the Royal New Zealand College of GP’s quality programmes in mind, the Toolkit aligns with the requirements of the Cornerstone CQI module and can also be useful for practices working through Foundation Standard.
The CQI Toolkit uses antimicrobial stewardship* as its focus, however, the editable templates can easily be adapted to another topic of your choice.
The resource has the following components.
- An Activity Guide – contains pre-filled and editable templates for all the steps required to complete a continuous quality improvement initiative around antimicrobial stewardship. The guide also provides examples of how to use your data from the EPiC dashboard - click here.
- A Data Collection Form – provides you with a place to record all your findings as you work through the Activity Guide. You’ll be prompted by suggestions and examples that you can adapt to suit your own practice.
- An Information Sheet – gives an overview of the resource, which can be distributed to your team members.
The CQI Toolkit is suitable for any general practice team member who wants to:
- meet various criteria of the Foundation Standard (accessed via annual fee to RNZCGP)
- meet requirements of the Cornerstone CQI module (purchased from RNZCGP)
- support individual team member’s professional development goals
- make good use of the data in the EPiC dashboard
- improve practice efficiency, and save time and money
- help ensure that antibiotics will still work for future generations.
He Ako Hiringa is looking for feedback from practice teams that use the CQI Toolkit, so it can be made as useful and user-friendly as possible. To facilitate this process, He Ako Hiringa is providing free initial training sessions and ongoing technical support to practices that plan to use the toolkit. If you're interested in starting your CQI journey, simply follow these steps:
- Click here to download the CQI Toolkit - click here.
- Discuss project ideas with your team.
- Click here to book a free, one-hour EPiC training session to help kick things off in your practice - click here.
*Antimicrobial stewardship is a term used to describe taking action to protect the usefulness of medicines such as antibiotics. Aotearoa has one of the highest levels of antimicrobial prescribing in the world. Overuse, and inappropriate use, of antibiotics can lead to bacteria becoming resistant to them, leaving us with fewer medicines to treat infections. Antimicrobial stewardship aims to ensure appropriate prescribing of these medicines, to minimise drug resistance as well as adverse effects and costs. You can find out more about antimicrobial stewardship here.
You can find more clinical education resources covering a wide range of topics for primary health care teams at Akohiringa.co.nz
Practice Manager of the Year for 2024
The prestigious 2024 PMAANZ Practice Manager Specialist of the Year Awards!
This event aims to honour and celebrate the exceptional contributions made by practice managers in the field of practice management.
Over the past few years, practice managers have faced unparalleled challenges, and their resilience and unwavering dedication has been vital in overcoming these.
To acknowledge those exceptional individuals, their extensive knowledge, expertise and leadership qualities, we encourage you to nominate them for the 2024 PMAANZ Practice Manager of the Year Awards.
Don't hesitate! Nominate your practice manager today and join us in honouring these remarkable individuals who have played a pivotal role in shaping the success of their practices and the profession as a whole.
GPLF Response to Capitation Funding
7 June 2023
By e-mail: abbe.anderson@health.govt.nz
Tēnā koe Abbe
Re: Draft Prescription for Capitation Payment Rates for Enrolled Persons Receiving Certain Services from PHOs from 1 July 2023
We are writing on behalf of the GP Leaders’ Forum in response to the Draft Prescription Notice issued on 20 May 2023. Our member organisations reject the new rates set out in the Notice and offer the counterproposal set out in this letter.
The proposed 5% uplift will not address the emergent crisis in general practice and is likely to compound current workforce and cost pressures. We urgently need investment to correct the erosion of the value of capitation and so to avoid harm to our population.
General practice provides continuous, comprehensive, coordinated care that is shown to reduce the need for hospitalisations and reduce mortality.1 However, one third of practices have closed books.2Half of GPs report that they are burnt-out – the highest number in any country surveyed.3 The volume and complexity of work being undertaken in general practice continues to increase, with utilisation rates for the beginning of 2023 on average 6% higher compared to the previous year. Patients are waiting weeks to get an appointment. In the latest New Zealand Health survey 11% of people said they could not get a GP appointment because of the length of waiting times – some 478,000 people.4 Since then the situation has worsened.
People need to be able to enrol with a GP, to be able to get an appointment with their practice in a timely way, and to be able to afford an appointment when they need one. Sadly, this is an increasingly difficult scenario for many New Zealanders, particularly some of our most vulnerable people. The pressures on services and constraints on access are even more accentuated in the rural sector and in some of our most high needs communities, despite the duties to priority populations set out in the Pae Ora Healthy Futures legislation.
General practice needs to be financially sustainable in order to provide continued access and safe and high-quality care to patients. The consequences to the wider health system and to population wellbeing of neglect of primary care investment are catastrophic. If just 6% of GP encounters shifted to emergency department visits, this would double the number of ED presentations.
We want to work with Te Whatu Ora and primary care sector partners with urgency to implement solutions that will address the persistent inequities in current funding, recognise the complexity of modern general practice, and help us shift our focus towards keeping people well and achieving the Pae Ora objectives.
This counterproposal is intended to be a constructive approach to a recovery plan for general practice. The starting point for the uplift in capitation should be the findings of Sapere’s evidence-based review of capitation undertaken in 2021-22 on behalf of Government which found that general practice was underfunded by 9% on average, before adjustments for need. To begin the stabilisation process for general practice, the price increase across all general practice funding streams from July 2023 should be a minimum of 14%; that is 9% to take account of the independently verified underfunding, plus the 5% offered on the basis of calculations from the same independent source.
When restrictions on patient co-payments are applied, this would translate to an actual increase in practice income closer to 7%. The alternative for many practices struggling to maintain services is to apply to increase the fees their patients pay - a further barrier to access, and in contrast to Government policy to remove co-payments for prescriptions.
We welcome the proposed increase in immunisation payments which will come as a real relief to practices. It will be a key factor in supporting the daily mahi in our practices and protecting our tamariki from avoidable harm. However, this work remains underfunded, and we believe an immediate additional premium should be included for the initial six-week childhood immunisation appointment which is a vital component of future wellbeing for pēpē and mothers. We would like to work with you to design and cost that six-week intervention.
In addition, we seek urgent progress on implementation of the review of general practice funding (with appropriate equity adjustments to reflect the higher level of need in priority populations) and on a range of initiatives to build, value and fairly remunerate our general practice workforce. The majority of practice costs are staffing costs. A reasonable increase in capitation, combined with initiatives to grow and support our workforce, are vital if we are to have the people we need to deliver essential, equitable and high quality health care. These suggested initiatives, which can be implemented even within a constrained funding envelope, are set out in the appendix to this letter. We want to work collaboratively and constructively with Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora to further develop and implement them.
We look forward to discussing these solutions to begin the vital ‘reset’ of general practice with you and your team at your earliest convenience.
Ngā mihi
APPENDIX: Expectations for the stabilisation and recovery of general practice
Sustainable workforce plan
We need genuine investment in effective and targeted recruitment and retention strategies to grow and maintain the health workforce based on the health needs of the population. We seek a commitment to the quadruple aim that sees the primary care workforce valued and supported on a par with the Te Whatu Ora employed workforce. Specifically:
- An increase in New Zealand medical school places to provide the supply of domestically trained GPs needed for the population as shown by Te Whatu Ora’s own workforce projections
- A specific focus on training for rural health professionals with additional funding and support for interprofessional rural training initiatives: for rural, by rural, in rural
- An increase in the number of Nurse Practitioner training places with funding available to practices to provide backfill and offer placements
- Immediately extend the subsidies and support for international recruitment available to Te Whatu Ora to primary care providers, including relocation packages for new staff and their families (estimated at $50,000 per new GP) and appropriate orientation and cultural safety training
- Undertaking of a gap identification exercise between the pay and conditions of GP Fellows and Te Whatu Ora-employed SMOs, with a commitment to reaching equivalence by 2025 – funding should value the GP Fellowship qualification
- Funding for the cost of training and backfill for any practice-based professional (nurses, pharmacists, etc) undertaking prescriber training
- Resourcing and support for an expanded NZREX GP pathway and consideration of this for domestic graduates
- Mandating and properly resourcing Community Based Attachments, with a view to extending the amount of time that doctors in training spend in general practice
- Funding for nursing pay parity (over and above usual annual increases) to 100% by June 30, 2024
- Regional coordination and funding of NETP placements, in collaboration with PHOs and contracted providers, so that in the 2024 calendar year 20% of these occur in general practice settings
- Provision for afterhours funding for CSC holder and those aged under 14 to non-enrolling telehealth providers to support this channel for managing workloads using distance workforces
- Rapid distribution of the $102m funding for comprehensive care team development allocated in Budget 2022 with support from PHOs.
Sustainable funding plan
We expect joint planning with the sector on the development of a new general practice funding model to begin without delay.
- The Sapere Review includes a methodology for improving the allocation of funding across patient cohorts, and for addressing portions of the WAI2575 findings and improving equity. A joint working group should be convened to advise on the best way to implement the findings of the review and to incorporate them into a funding model that reflects population need and contemporary models of care.
- The current input-based annual cost calculation (the Annual Statement of Reasonable Fees Increases) does not represent true general practice cost or activity. An independent third party should be appointed to work with GPLF members to identify key factors that can be costed and built into a methodology that reflects true cost changes impacting general practice. These factors would likely include:
- changes in volume or service per capita
- increased time associated with clinical administration
- increased management of more complex patients or those needing specialist care (with increasing acuity thresholds and delays for access to secondary services)
- a means of capturing whole team activity
- infrastructure costs, including ongoing infection control measures such as red and green streaming for respiratory illness, IT development and security, physical space for staff in training and business continuity management
- 24/7 after-hours funding and solutions that enable appropriate access alongside the availability of appropriate and safe clinician time.
Other improvements
- Commitment from Te Whatu Ora not to give notice of termination of the PHO Services Agreement under clause B.38(2) before 1 January 2025 at the earliest in order to limit the uncertainty in relation to planning and staffing.
- Provide PHOs and their agents with timely and direct access to relevant national datasets, including the national general practice qualifying encounter dataset, by 31 October 2023 to ensure meaningful dialogue on issues and solutions.
- In conjunction with a new funding model, identify the resources and models of care needed to support the most complex and high needs patients, including extended and flexible consultations.
- Consistently fund evidence-based practice-level model of care developments, supported by PHOs, including implementation of digital health options, triage arrangements, and targeted proactive care.
- Work in partnership with PHOs and providers on a range of ‘expectations of care’, such as time to next available appointment, time for received results to be filed, open notes access, medicine reconciliation, after-hours time to consultation.
- Work in partnership on the development of a forum with representation from all relevant parties to negotiate in good faith future primary care funding changes beyond the PHO Services Agreement.
If you would like to download this, click here.
Conference Update - Jennifer Kaponga
Hi all…
Well winter is certainly taking its job seriously with the temperatures this last week having plummeted forcing the oodies out from the back of the closet.
With this year’s conference in Christchurch less than 100 days away, the committee has been working hard behind the scenes reviewing and confirming the programme. With covid being behind us, our theme this year is Operation Transition from reactive to proactive. After 3 years of changes, we are looking forward to working positively in the “new normal” environment. We kick off with our Masterclass and have an amazing line up of guest speakers that is relevant to our industry, and we hope you find worthwhile. We are pleased to also be running a separate reception day this year with some great education. Our venue for our conference dinner is at the Cardboard Cathedral, we are still working on the dress-up theme, but will let you know what this is via PMANZ e-blast soon!
Having come from private sector, I have found attending conferences the best way to meet and connect with other Practice Managers. If you haven’t yet booked click on the link below, Early bird special closes on 30th June.
Look forward to seeing you all soon.
To register click the link here: https://www.pmaanzconference.org.nz/register
Membership Update - Karen Greer
Kia ora Everyone,
Well, I hope you all have had a bit of a break over the Kings Birthday weekend. Myself well I have managed to get away for a couple of weeks. I have popped into some practices to say hi whilst I was on leave. The general consensus for everyone is that we are all exhausted, short staffed and having trouble getting staff. I have no answers to these problems.
As Practice Managers and Administrators, you are doing a fantastic job. I know it is very hard to shut your mind off when you have incomplete tasks and I must admit whilst being away I did some catching up I haven’t been able to get done while at work. Complete some online training which was needed for Foundation Standards and have also managed to complete my book I started at Christmas time. JD Robb series 37. Just in case you wanted something to read.
Please take care of yourselves and may sure you know we are only an email, messenger on Facebook or phone call away. I do admit, I love looking at messenger and the comments and advice is great.
Take care and see you at Conference.
Education Update - Niomi Fleming
Kia ora,
Thank you to everyone who has participated in the education papers so far. There has been a huge uplift in Practice Managers/ Administrators taking the papers and asking about furthering their education. Well done to all for the enthusiasm.
The scholarship for this year will be a fantastic opportunity for all, please see the application criteria that will be on our website and I look forward to reading them.
Congratulations to Cindy Davis from Waihopai Health Services for achieving Bronze.
Congratulations to Rebecca Ihaka from Whanau Ora Community Centre for achieving Bronze.
I am looking forward to receiving your submissions and questions, I can be reached on education@pmaanz.org.nz
Treasurer Update - Mary Ford
Hi everyone,
Hope you are all staying warm & safe in this bizarre weather, I know I've had enough of the storms & the wind. We've had some snow on our Maunga & it's looking amazing.
Busy time for me recently in my practice, we have just had our assessment for Foundation Standards sent off to the RNZCGP for approving, as you all know that's a fair bit of work. In the middle of that we acquired the lease to the building next door, so we could expand our GP practice. Luckily it was previously a GP practice as well so we didn't have to do any structural changes, just stock it for day 1. We had a dawn blessing on our opening day, with our local iwi Ngati te Whiti with some great kai & our rehearsed wāiata and karakia. Amazing start to our new building.
I have been helping out with the Conference Committee over the last few months & have to say I'm looking forward to Christchurch, it will be amazing. Thanks to Carole, our awesome administrator, we have all the year-end financial reports with the auditors so they will be all ready to present at the AGM.
NZ Doctor Reads
Do you know we post articles from NZ Doctor that might be interest for you to read. These are on our website and you can click the link to read:
Read NZ Doctor Articles
Join the Executive Team - nominations will open soon!
We are looking for more amazing people to join our talented team!
Are you ready to take that next step in your career, work with like-minded colleagues with the same passion for our organisation and members, grow your skills and experience and you have at least 5 years health management in General Practice, Allied Health or Dental then come and join us.
The National Executive has the following portfolios:
- Executive Chair
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Conference
- Education
- Membership
- Communications/Webmaster
Fully supported by our Administrator these roles would suit anyone who wants to give back to members, while learning and filling your kete of knowledge.
If this sounds like your next step in your career pathway, then contact admin@pmaanz.org.nz for nomination forms, and job descriptions.
2023 Scholarship Will Open Soon!
Scholarship applications will open soon and you will be able to apply.
Applications are requested from current financial Registered Members and Practice Membership members of PMAANZ. We will have a form that you will be able to submit your application along with any other documentation to support your application.
You can provide a body of work towards the Silver / UNEp level e.g. teaching resources and the scholarship will be paid by reimbursement upon production of a receipt for tuition fees from the institution you will be undertaking the study with.
The Scholarship winners are announced at Conference. The UNE Scholarship will be presented by the sponsor and PMAANZ Education Executive member.
Look out for our emails and social posts announcing applications are open and we look forward to receiving your applications shortly.
REVIEWS - recommended by PMAANZ Members
MOVIES / SHOWS
Apple TV: Ted Lasso
If you have thought about like I did for ages – don’t just watch it, makes you laugh, cry and the characters are amazing. And Rebecca’s (main character) outfits are to die for. One of the best shows ever. Makes you feel good.
NETFLIX: Queen Charlotte
If you like Bridgerton this is better!!!!!
NEON: Somebody somewhere
Something a bit different but again great characters and story line, very funny and easy to relate too.
TVNZ ON DEMAND: The Gone
Kiwi and Irish collab – murder mystery filmed in Te Aroha – great watch.
MOVIES: Good luck to you, Leo Grande
Listed as a romance on Neon, personally I would have put it in the comedy category. Feel good movie about a widowed school teacher who has only had one partner. Now she wants to learn all about sex so hires a young gigolo. Well worth a watch, a good one for a girls catch up.
BOOKS
Paper Cage by Tom Baragwanth
NZ detective type novel trying to unravel a series of child abductions from Masterton. Has some very apt descriptions of small town NZ, including the gangs. Great story, kept me focused until the very last page.
The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey
Everywhere, the birds: sparrows and skylarks and thrushes, starlings and bellbirds, fantails and pipits &– but above them all and louder, the magpies. We are here and this is our tree and we' re staying and it is ours and you need to leave and now. Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie, and this is where his story might have ended. &‘ If it keeps me awake,' says Marnie' s husband Rob, a farmer, &‘ I' ll have to wring its neck.' But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple' s future. Tama can speak, and his fame is growing. Outside, in the pines, his father warns him of the wickedness wrought by humans. Indoors, Marnie confides in him about her violent marriage. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds &– and all of the precarity, darkness and hope within them &– bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman' s Carnival.
Landed by Sue McCauley
From the author of Other Halves (1982) which won both the Wattie Book of the Year Award and the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction and sold more than 20,000 copies. It's the early 1990s in Timaru, and Brewer Howland has killed himself. His wife, Briar, is left stranded in a rapidly changing world. The future she took for granted has been obliterated and she must invent a new one. But how does a sixty-something widow go about creating a future for herself in a world she struggles to comprehend? She has taken a sharp right-hand turn into familiar territory, and everything seems to be rapidly changing: values, language, telephones, families, race relations, gadgets. Amid this tsunami of 'progress' Briar must decide how and where to live out her life. If her children and grandchildren had turned out to be lovingly bonded family cluster she'd hoped to raise they might have been future enough. But her children are scattered and disputations. Briar longs to return to the farmland where she grew up, but this seems unlikely. While she is trying to plan ahead, Briar's future is quietly taking on a shape of its own. Given time, and enough indecision, it seems an ominously sharp turn to the right can eventually lead you to just where you wanted to be. A wry, pensive, character-driven novel, Landed is Sue's first novel in decades.
PMAANZ Administrator
PO Box 92 004
Faringdon
Rolleston 7650>