27 October 2016
NZSA rebrand | New NZSA E-Zine | Meeting with the Minister of Health | World Anaesthesia Day | ACE | Events | BWT Ritchie Scholarship | NZA Visiting Lectureship 2016 Whanganui Symposium | New maternity systems project group | New Perioperative Nurses College Chair | Reminfentanil update | Maternity care under scrutiny
Vacancies: The NZSA regularly posts vacancies on its website, for positions in New Zealand and overseas.
“Developing a new logo that appeals to everyone is a challenging task but our aim is to encourage higher membership to ensure the longevity of the society that our respected founders built and to ensure we remain strong advocates on your behalf.”
In his latest
blog, NZSA President Dr David Kibblewhite writes about the reasons for the NZSA’s rebrand, while also reflecting on the legacy of those who formed the NZSA back in 1948, spearheading innovation and change. We sent David’s blog to members when we shared our new brand a few weeks ago but he has since updated it to respond to the feedback we have received. This has been overwhelmingly positive, however some members have expressed reservations, and David provides more detailed information to explain the decisions behind the new brand design. He says ultimately we needed a brand that was memorable, simple and easily reproduced, especially across digital platforms.
We have updated our E-Zine template which has been redesigned to align with our new branding. We hope you like it. We are still refining the design but are pleased to announce that it offers a desktop and mobile option for reading.
Meeting with the Minister of Health
The NZSA met with Health Minister Jonathan Coleman earlier this month. Topics discussed included: Malignant Hyperthermia, in which President Dr David Kibblewhite outlined the condition and said that New Zealand punches above its weight in managing both research and epidemiology of the disorder.
While funding is adequate at present he pointed out that there is concern that because of the autosomal dominant nature there will be an increase in carriers and therefore the need for testing.
Maternity Clinical Information System (MCIS): We conveyed concerns in relation to accessing patient information and problems occurring in acute cases, compromising patient safety. The Minister said that the Ministry of Health is committed to resolving the issues. We highlighted the importance of our networks, such as the obstetrics network, in keeping us informed of developments on this issue.
Other issues discussed were the anaesthesia workforce and concerns about maldistribution in rural and regional areas, the shortage of anaesthetic technicians and the need to up skill both anaesthetic technicians and theatre nurses to increase the flexibility and skills of both professions to meet the needs of our health sector. We said we are supportive of the Medical Sciences Council's current review of the AT Scope of Practice. We also touched briefly on medical marijuana, our support for the bowel screening roll-out, and updated the Minister on new connectors for intravenous and epidurals which will improve patient safety.
This year's World Anaesthesia Day (17 October) theme was regional anaesthesia and how it can benefit patients. The NZSA had a busy day on Twitter, tweeting in support of the WFSA’s World Anaesthesia Day promotion about the importance of safe anaesthesia as essential for safe surgery and their SAFE-T campaign, as well as the promotions and displays taking place across our hospitals. Our executive member Morgan Edwards, along with the Auckland City Hospital National Anaesthesia Day team, also designed posters which featured NZSA branding and which were distributed to various hospitals and practices. It was
great to see these hospital displays feature so prominently in both the news media and social media. Congratulations to ANZCA for the excellent media coverage they achieved. Stories included The NZ Herald report on Auckland City Hospital's trial of regional anaesthetic in breast cancer surgery, and Hutt Hospital’s clinical director Dr James Cameron on Radio NZ’s Nine-to-Noon show about the benefits of regional anaesthesia.
Anaesthesia Continuing Education
The Anaesthesia Continuing Education Co-ordinating Committee (ACE) encourages members convening conferences, workshops or meetings, which assist CPD requirements, to add their event to the ACE website. The parent groups, NZSA, ANZCA and ASA, host the site as part of the tripartite committee. Learn more about the many CPD opportunities on the ACE website
Events on NZSA websiteFor our full listing of events, visit the NZSA website. Below is a selection of upcoming events:
ICI Meeting 2016 Conference for Innovations in Cardiovascular Systems, Tel Aviv, Israel4-6 December 2016
Visit the Congress website for more information and to register.
Surgical Humidification Research SymposiumAuckland, 6-9 December 2016 You are invited to join leading local and international experts
to explore the latest innovations and outcomes in abdominal surgery. There will be keynote lectures and scientific sessions on peri-operative normothermia, surgical site infection, health economics, peritoneal metastasis, inflammation and health and health innovations. For more details and registration here
Inaugural Lecture on Pre-hospital and Retrieval MedicineAuckland City Hospital Clinical Education Centre
28 November, commencing at 5.00pmIn celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Auckland Helicopter Emergency Medical Services
(HEMS) Initiative, the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust and Auckland District Health Board invites you to the inaugural lecture on Pre-hospital and Retrieval Medicine. Our speaker is Dr Stephen Hearns presenting 'Building an Integrated Pre-Hospital Retrieval and Medical Service: The Scottish Experience."
RSVP/ Leanda Hunt by Monday 14 November 2016.
Phone (09) 950 7209 or email/ leanda@arht.org.nz
Applications close 31 October 2016.To find out more please visit the BWT Ritchie page on the NZAEC website.
The BWT Ritchie Scholarship provides financial assistance to New Zealand-based anaesthesia trainees who have passed the final examination for fellowship of ANZCA and are eligible to proceed to training year 5, to gain overseas experience and bring it back to New Zealand. It is also open to those who wish to undertake a further year of study outside New Zealand in the year following completion of their ANZCA fellowship (FANZCA); and to anaesthetists with FANZCA who are also training in pain medicine or intensive care medicine and who have reached a similar stage for those fellowships. Applicants must be nominated and supported by their training departments. The scholarship fund available for disbursement is up to $15,000 per year.
NZA Visiting Lectureship 2016
Whanganui Symposium
VENUE:Lecture Theatre - Whanganui Hospital DATE:4 November 2016 TIME: 2pm-4pm
COST: Nil
Speakers are Dr Matt Jenks from Dunedin Hospital who will speak about "operating theatre waste, climate change and the anaesthetist" and Dr Benjamin Griffiths from Auckland City Hospital on "Emergency Laparotomy perioperative outcome and quality improvement pathways: A United Kingdom and NZ perspective."
RSVP is required for catering purposes:
Dr Nigel Waters nigel.waters@midcentraldhb.govt.nz or Dr Marco Meijer marco.meijer@wdhb.org.nz
New maternity systems project group
More information on the NZSA website
A cross sector, multi-disciplinary Maternity Information Systems Project (MISP) Governance Group has been established to advise and support the Ministry of Health's Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) to ensure MISP is successfully implemented and maintained. The first meeting of the Governance Group was on 13 October 2016. The NZSA representative on the Group is Dr Aidan O'Donnell.
New Perioperative Nurses College Chair
The Perioperative Nurses College has appointed a new Chair. Ms Johanna McCamish has 25 years of acute care nursing experience, initially in ICU nursing and for the last 16 years in PACU. She has a close working relationship with anaesthetists as the PACU Clinical Nurse Educator at Counties Manukau District Health Board. She will be completing her Clinical Master of Nursing Degree this year and has a special interest in malignant hyperthermia management. Johanna has been the PNC Vice Chair for the past year and is on the editorial committee of The Dissector Journal. We farewell and thank Fiona Unac, the past Chair, for engaging with the Society and College to progress New Zealand anaesthetic assistant workforce training over the past few years.
PHARMAC has advised us that GSK NZ are expecting additional stock to arrive in New Zealand within the next two weeks.The 2 mg has received the necessary QA approvals and arrangements are now being made to transport it to New Zealand. The 1 mg will follow shortly after. They will keep us updated if there are any changes to this information and request that you reserve remaining supplies of Remifentanil for cases where its use is clinically necessary and alternatives are inappropriate.
Maternity care under scrutiny
A study by the University of Otago which compared birth outcomes for babies born to mothers registered with medical lead maternity carers (LMCs) (such as obstetricians or GPs) with those who had midwives as LMCs found comparatively higher rates of adverse birth events in midwifery-led deliveries.
The Ministry of Health's Chief Medical Officer says that the study and its findings require further investigation, and that the Ministry has referred it to the National Maternity Monitoring Group for consideration. Independently of the Otago study, the Health and Disability Commissioner recently released two breach decisions relating to maternity care: one against a midwife who failed to refer to specialist care despite clear policy guidance, and another involving private maternity care. Read
more
Merck Sharp & Dohme (NZ) Ltd (MSD) was established in New Zealand in 1962 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co. Inc. MSD New Zealand supplies pharmaceuticals and vaccines for New Zealand patients across a wide number of therapeutic areas including; oncology, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, women's health, fertility, HIV/AIDS, antibacterials/antifungals and immunisations.
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