Kia ora koutou

Welcome to the new Spotlight on Tobacco e-newsletter.

With the new focus on integrating services and ensuring continued success in the secondary care target, seeing increases in the primary care target and the inclusion of a new maternity health target, we want to open the lines of communication.

Spotlight on Tobacco will include the latest tobacco control activities happening in the sector. We’ll include helpful tips and tools, decisions, events and anything we think will be useful for you to know.

All the information below will link you to the Health Improvement and Innovation Resource Centre (HIIRC). This information has been developed to support you and your work.

Turning Point was developed for New Zealand smoking cessation workers to share success stories and best practice examples together, and highlighting emerging research to increase the information and support available to cessation workers across New Zealand. 

The latest edition is out now.

Text messaging - People have raised an interesting question regarding the use of text messaging in primary care to achieve the Better help for smokers to quit health target.

PHO recipe for success - This recipe was created by Manaia PHO to improve their primary health target results, with great success.

Capturing data - The Ministry is currently exploring feasible options of how we can capture data.

Last quarter results  - Well done on achieving the health target for the first time in Quarter two!  DHBs have come a long way since the health target began in 2009 and we share some of the key success factors.

There have been a number of changes since our last contact with you so here is an overview of the Tobacco Control team at the Ministry of Health today. In each issue of Spotlight on Tobacco, we will introduce each team member in a bit more detail.

Health targets and policy work
Paul Badco, National Programme Manager (DDI) 04 816 2949
Brendon Baker, Senior Advisor, Policy (DDI) 04 816 3930
John Stribling, Advisor, Policy (DDI) 04 816 4395
Ben Everist, Senior Advisor, Primary Care (DDI) 04 816 2801
Monique Leerschool (currently on secondment)
Heather Button, Advisor, Secondary & Maternity (DDI) 04 816 2978
Irene Kilford, Senior Advisor (DDI) 04 496 2550
Danielle Crooks, Stakeholder Engagement (DDI) 04 816 4362
Alofa Tiai, Programme Administrator (DDI) 04 04 496 2442
Dr Hayden McRobbie, Clinical Advisor
Karen Evison, Tobacco Control Champion
Dr John McMenamin,Tobacco Control Champion (Primary Care)
 

DHB and cessation service funders
Manaia King, Manager (DDI) 09 580 9119
Jo Muschamp, Senior Portolio Manager (DDI) 09 580 9013
Tony Brown, Portfolio Manager (DDI) 07 929 3633
Colin Charan, Portfolio Manager (DDI) 04 816 3911
Rebecca Kemp, Portfolio Manager (DDI) 03 974 2313

Dr Hayden McRobbie who is a Medical Practitioner based in both New Zealand and London. In New Zealand, Hayden is the Clinical Advisor for Tobacco at the Ministry of Health. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Auckland University of Technology and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Auckland. In the UK, Hayden works as a Senior Clinician in the NHS Stop Smoking Services, in a deprived part of London, where he specialises in group based smoking cessation treatment. He is also involved in training healthcare professionals in smoking cessation. Hayden also contributes to numerous expert bodies, committees, working groups and conferences.

In his personal time, Hayden loves to cook and spends a lot of time in the kitchen. He is also an amateur watercolour artist and is currently doing a series of anatomical paintings – “it gives the other half of brain a bit of a work-out” Hayden says.

Health Target Performance
The overall Quarter Two performance for the More Heart and Diabetes Checks health target was 55 percent. Western Bay PHO was the first PHO to reach the target, at 76 percent. Nine other PHOs are within 10 percent of the target. On average PHOs increase three to four percent per quarter, which on current trends, would indicate that six to seven PHOs will reach the target by 30 June 2013.

The clinical champions for the More Heart and Diabetes checks health target and the Better help for smokers to quit target have been meeting with PHOs and DHBs round the country over the last two months. The discussions focused on strategies to support target gains and sharing common lessons from the case studies the Heart Foundation have pulled together.

The Ministry has also recently provided feedback on the health target sections of draft DHB annual plans. Whilst the plans generally included an outline of activity to progress target achievement, a more detailed outline of explicit actions and quarterly milestones has been requested. The final drafts of DHB annual plans are due to the Ministry later in May. 

This is an on-going priority for us. We need to work innovatively and collaboratively – simply doing more of the same is not going to achieve the outcomes New Zealand needs.

Review of the CVDRA Guidelines
The Ministry of Health is facilitating a process to review a number of the cardiovascular components of the Primary Care Handbook (2012). The goal of the review is to create a summary for primary care of the recommended approach to Cardiovascular Risk Assessment (CVDRA), with some additional minor updates regarding more effective implementation and population management. In simple terms, we are aiming to make assessment and management easier in primary care.

The work will support meeting the health target of More Heart and Diabetes Checks in primary care where 90 percent of the eligible population have had a CVDRA within the last five years, by July 2014.

The process includes assembling a small and dedicated working group to undertake both a rapid and targeted review. Issues identified as part of the process would be circulated for feedback and input from the sector, before being finalised. 

Keep an eye on the HIIRC website for more information and updates on the membership of the Working Group.