Services available include: General check-ups, family planning, cervical smears, pregnancy testing, vaccinations (travel and childhood), minor surgery, liquid nitrogen, asthma clinics, cardiovascular clinics, diabetic clinics, spirometry, smoking cessation, weight loss programs, green prescriptions, home visits, sports medicine and skin checks, and also terminal care.
Our Services
Manage My Health Portal
Patients can now access the patient portal to book appointments, order prescriptions and view test results online.
General Medical Care
We pride ourselves to be the place you come to when you are feeling unwell. All our doctors have gone through an extensive medical training to equip them to help children and adults of all ages. Medical care at your GP clinic is at the centre of healthcare. Here all GP services are available, and referral for more specialist opinion if needed. GPs are also aware of the link that stress and unhappy life events have on physical health, so can refer you for a “talking therapy” rather than medication if needed.
Nurse Appointments
Appointments with our nurses need to be made for; blood pressure checks, immunisations, Nurse led clinics for asthma, diabetes, CVD (Cardiovascular Risk), smoking cessation, green prescriptions, weight loss, life style and care plus clinics.
Home Visits
Home visits are available for registered patients whose condition prevents them from attending our surgery. Please call to discuss this.
Reminder System
We are committed to preventative care. We may send you with a reminder notice from time to time offering you preventative health services appropriate to your care. We also use ‘text’ as a way of communicating with our patients.
Should you not want to be offered this service, please let us know.
Telephone Access
Calls made to our surgery can often be dealt with by the nurse or receptionists. Doctors are generally consulting all day, and dealing with urgent patient matters. Messages can be left with the staff to pass onto specific Doctors. Although no specific time can be given for a return phone call, it is usually at the end of the day.
Simple Accident Care
North Harbour Medical Centre is able to deal with most minor accidents. If we are not able to manage your injury, we will refer on to the appropriate service or send you by ambulance to North Shore Hospital for immediate care.
Minor Surgery
Minor surgery is commonly provided in primary care practices. In providing fast, competent removal and biopsies of skin lesions, any further necessary treatment can be managed early. Other services include removal of benign moles and skin tags, along with ingrown toenail surgery. Such conditions do not need a hospital referral.
If your doctor is unable to provide the procedure you need, they will then refer you to a specialist of your choice or to North Shore Hospital.
Repeat Prescriptions
Patients who are well known to our practice, and have a stable medical condition, i.e asthma, hypertension or diabetes, can get a repeat prescription for up to six months. Prescriptions for narcotics and other drugs that could be misused, require a doctor’s appointment. These drugs need careful monitoring.
Requests for prescriptions can be made through our receptionists or via Manage My Health and we ask for 24 hrs notice. Please see our fee schedule for prescription fees.
Lab Results
The doctor may send you for a blood or urine test to help in the diagnosis and to monitor certain medications. These tests could include blood sugar level through the full range of blood tests, including samples of tissue testing for cancer.
Urine testing can be tested in the surgery, however, blood and other specimens get sent to the laboratory. The results come back within 48 hours. Very rare tests going to a specialist lab take a little longer.
We will contact you about any abnormal results, but encourage you to phone us for these anytime, or look up your results on Manage My Health. If the nurse is unavailable at the time, she will contact you when she is free.
Liquid Nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is used as an effective, very cold treatment to help manage many benign lesions such as: viral warts, sun damaged skin and skin tags. It cannot be stored for too long due to evaporation. Application is by spray nozzle. Often one treatment is all that is required but sometimes it may need repeating after two weeks. This is usually be done by the Practice Nurse after the initial consultation with your GP. There is an extra cost for liquid nitrogen on top of a normal consultation.
Cervical Smears
All our doctors do cervical smears. These can be done in an ordinary consultation. It is recommended that all sexually active women between 20 and 70 should have a cervical smear test. This test detects abnormal cells, which left untreated, could become cervical cancer. Very often these changes occur due to human papillomavirus (HPV).
A year after having the first smear, women should have another and thereafter every three years, as regular tests and treatment reduces the likelihood of this sort of cancer by around 90%.
For more information about cervical smear tests click on the link to the National Screening Unit website http://www.nsu.govt.nz/Current-NSU-Programmes/564.asp
Travel Advice / Immunisations
If you are travelling, remember to ask about your required vaccinations at least six weeks before you leave.
Some vaccines are needed to protect yourself before going to Africa, Asia or South America for example. For some destinations, you will also need protection from malaria. You will require a prescription for these. Due to the complexity of some decisions, it is recommended you discuss your itinerary with our Doctor. We will then need to order the appropriate vaccines, and request you make an appointment with the nurse a week later to give them. Remember, it will take two weeks for your body to produce the required levels of antibodies.
Yellow fever vaccinations are only available at approved centres. We are not able to give yellow fever vaccinations at our surgery.
Spirometry
Spirometry is a tool that measures how effectively your lungs are working. It is able to show how much air lungs are able to hold (their volume) and how much air can be breathed in and out (inhaled and exhaled) which is called flow.
This tool is mainly used to assess damage caused by conditions like COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – a group that includes bronchitis and emphysema), pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis and asthma. Results are printed out in a graph format. Appointments are necessary for this service. Our Doctors then review the results to ensure the best drugs are used for individual basis.
For more information click on the following link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirometry
Immunisations
Immunisations are provided at all primary care practices and are one of the most important services we provide. Immunisation has led to the decline of many lethal diseases.
Through the National Immunisation Schedule, babies are routinely immunised for tetanus, polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type B. These are combined in one injection. Also immunisation for pneumonia and rotovirus.
Measles,mumps and rubella and chicken pox are offered at aged 15 months. The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella are also combined in one injection.
The MMR can be given at age 12 months and the second dose given one month later if requested.
A specially qualified nurse or doctor administer the injections, having ensured that your child is well. Each vaccination is documented by us and the New Zealand’s National Immunisation Register. This information system holds details of all immunisations given to children in NZ. A record is also documented in children’s Well Child book for those under the age of 5.
This immunisation record will need to be shown when each child starts school or early childcare.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, is now included in the immunisation program. This for both males and females from age 9 to 26 years old.
The influenza vaccine is offered free annually for those over aged 65 yrs and for those with a chronic medical condition, i.e asthma, heart disease or cancer. There is a charge for other people whose choose to have the flu vaccine.
Tuberculosis (TB) vaccine is provided free for certain eligible groups.
Non-funded vaccines include: meningococcal B, meningococcal C, hepatitis A and other travel vaccines. As these carry no government subsidy, you will have to pay for them. Reactions are increasingly extremely rare following improvements in vaccine research and production. Patients are required to stay twenty minutes post vaccination.
For more information click on the following link http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/preventative-health-wellness/immunisation
A consultation appointment with the Doctor is needed prior to giving the vaccinations, as well as with the nurse, who usually administers them.
We are not able to give a yellow fever vaccination. This is available at Travel Medicine Clinics.
ECG
An ECG tracing is a recording of your heart’s electrical activity and usually recommended by our doctor’s during a consultation.
Skin patches are attached to your chest to measure the electrical activities given off by your heart, giving information about your heart.
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