CONSTELLATION: Award-winning Primary Stars - find your inspiration for 2025

Pharmacy Today reporters catch up with Primary Stars in the weeks and months after the gala night

Empathy the X factor as GP Bruce Arroll takes home the supreme award

A 41-year career pursuing excel­lence and generously sharing his knowledge and good hu­mour brought academic GP Bruce Arroll the top award in the 2021 New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora.

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Team busts through pain points of fragmented care

For Adrian Maxwell, it can be as simple as where the client is sleeping that can hint at deeper problems. Mr Maxwell is not just looking at the person’s health conditions. He and colleagues are looking for signs of financial stress, or maybe whether the house is damp...

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Trailblazer’s 40 years of healthy connections

Nurse practitioner Maria Kekus’ career in health has always been about making connections. It is what she does with patients and colleagues, and it probably explains why the service she co-founded is named Health Connections...

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Going for Gauld: Problem-solving pharmacist

Pharmacist Natalie Gauld’s new­found fondness for a cryptic crossword is unlikely to surprise anyone: she’s got a penchant for prob­lem solving, a knack for seeking out solutions and she’s unafraid of tackling a real challenge...

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Practice culture helps award-winning nurse - Breaking down stereotypes

Tongan-born and male, Fakaanga Mapa knows he is not what most people expect when they think of a nurse. Male patients in particular are often sur­prised to see him when they walk into Turuki Health Care’s clinic in Panmure, Auckland: “Oh, you’re a nurse, bro? I’ve never met a male nurse in my life!”

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Mobile COVID project points a path to equity: Award for Whakatāne’s Te Puna Ora o Mataatua

COVID-19 set in motion health­care changes in the eastern Bay of Plenty that have been wel­comed by rural patients and won the providers an award....

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Joy of consulting and low-carb prescribing - Watch out for ‘pings’ says award-winning GP

Medtech GP of the Year Glen Davies hates the word patient. “I don’t encourage any of my patients to be patient: I think every single one of them should be a pain in the arse, basically,” Dr Davies says...

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Award-winning health education website sets its sights on being host with the most

Fresh from taking out the ACC Patient Safety Award at this year’s New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora, the Health Navigator Charitable Trust is aiming higher...

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Business model flips as Ōtara clinic rises to COVID challenge
South Seas Healthcare had a complete rethink of its business model in response to COVID-19

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Cutting the carbs proves a winning strategy for tackling diabetes
When a patient named Wayne called Glen Davies a “useless bastard”, it started a journey that would see the Taupō GP rethink his approach to treating type 2 diabetes

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An inspirational 'genuine bloke' changing lives
Fakaanga Mapa is breaking through cultural norms to ensure the healthcare needs of the communities he loves are taken care of

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Visionary ‘nursepreneur’ pioneers new approach to youth healthcare
Regularly referred to as a “nursepreneur”, Maria Kekus is a trailblazer when it comes to serving rangatahi

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The next generation in practice management
Transforming his role as Health Te Aroha’s business manager and achieving it in only two years, are just two of the reasons Pinnacle Incorporated believes Dwayne Stewart represents the future of practice management

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Te Awamutu pharmacy goes hard and early
Heeding the words of prime minister Jacinda Ardern, Sanders Pharmacy adopted a go hard and go early response to the COVID-19 pandemic before it reached our shores

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Designing simple solutions for a seamless delivery in pharmacy
In her first year at Life Pharmacy North City in Porirua, pharmacy technician Sonya Scrimshaw had no dispensary manager; in the subsequent three years she worked with five different managers

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Fighting the invisible problem of medicine harm
Severe medicine-related harm is estimated to affect around 45,000 New Zealanders each year and kills more than double the number of people claimed by road accidents and suicide combined. And yet, no one is talking about it, says clinical pharmacist Pauline McQuoid

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Young Kaikohe pharmacist a taonga in her community
Clinical excellence, kindness and devotion to her community are just a few of the qualities that make Northland pharmacist Jilly Williams (Ngāpuhi) stand out

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Humble professor an ‘inspiration to thousands’
Ingenuity, humility and generosity are just a few of the traits that give Bruce Arroll, head of the department of general practice and primary healthcare at the University of Auckland, the X factor

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The first to put her hand up to help others out
If there’s anybody who goes above and beyond the call of duty to help others and make a real difference, it’s Donna Kielar

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Easy-to-understand resources to improve medicine safety
When the Government’s COVID-19 alert level system was announced in March 2020, the team at Te Puna Ora o Mataatua Charitable Trust (TPO) leapt into action

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Mobile equity bus a huge success for Māori provider
Adverse drug events or reactions are major causes of patient morbidity and mortality, and a source of significant costs for organisations and whānau

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Changing lives with comprehensive holistic mental healthcare
Recognising a significant gap in primary care mental health, Total Healthcare’s consultant psychiatrist David Codyre has spent 20 years creating a more holistic model that benefits GPs, nurses and their patients

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Team busts through pain points of fragmented care
To address the rising numbers of patients with complex health needs and a mismatch of healthcare providers, Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance decided a paradigm shift was required

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Success of Te Wā Kōrero sparks demand from local high schools
An eight-week programme enhancing the mental wellbeing of rangatahi in south Auckland schools is helping build confidenceand resilience in its participants

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Smart thinking proves a lockdown lifeline
Kiwis living with sight loss were supported during COVID-19 lockdowns thanks to creative solutions developed by Blind Low Vision NZ

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Listen first, then build: Team Medical’s new home to meet many needs
The refurbishment of Team Medical was a monumental five-year project that transformed the practice

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Winning the battle to beat low vaccination rates for pregnant women
Collaboration is key to boosting maternal vaccination rates to protect mothers and babies from life-threating illnesses, VIP study team principal investigator Natalie Gauld says

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‘With AVA, our carers now have certainty of income’
Managing contracts across 20 DHBs, all with different contracting requirements for their carers and support workers, was complex and difficult for Access Community Health Hauora Tara-Ā-Whare

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21st Century tools for a new era in patient communication
Transforming the communication platform across its national network has changed the way Tāmaki Health communicates with its patient population

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A PERL of relief in a global pandemic
As the global COVID-19 pandemic reached our shores, primary care had to pivot on a pinhead to manage a stark new reality

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