Cohort profile: Nga Kawekawe o Mate Korona | Impacts of COVID-19 in Aotearoa - a prospective, national cohort study of people with COVID-19 in New Zealand.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant health, social and economic impacts around the world. We established a national, population-based longitudinal cohort to investigate the immediate and longer-term physical, psychological and economic impacts of COVID-19 on affected people in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa), with the resulting evidence to assist in designing appropriate health and well-being services for people with COVID-19. PARTICIPANTS: All people residing in Aotearoa aged 16 years or over, who had a confirmed or probable diagnosis of COVID-19 prior to December 2021, were invited to participate. Those living in dementia units were excluded. Participation involved taking part in one or more of four online surveys and/or in-depth interviews. The first wave of data collection took place from February to June 2022. FINDINGS TO DATE: By 30 November 2021, of 8735 people in Aotearoa aged 16+ who had COVID-19, 8712 were eligible for the study and 8012 had valid addresses so were able to be contacted to take part. A total of 990 people, including 161 Tangata Whenua (Maori, Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa) completed one or more surveys; in addition, 62 took part in in-depth interviews. Two hundred and seventeen people (20%) reported symptoms consistent with long COVID. Key areas of adverse impacts were experiences of stigma, mental distress, poor experiences of health services and barriers to healthcare, each being significantly more pronounced among disabled people and/or those with long COVID. FUTURE PLANS: Further data collection is planned to follow-up cohort participants. This cohort will be supplemented by the inclusion of a cohort of people with long COVID following Omicron infection. Future follow-ups will assess longitudinal changes to health and well-being impacts, including mental health, social, workplace/education and economic impacts of COVID-19.

'She taught me': factors consumers find important in nurse practitioner and pharmacist prescriber services.

BACKGROUND: Advanced practitioner services, such as those nurse practitioners and pharmacist prescribers provide, are an opportunity to improve health care delivery. In New Zealand, these practitioners remain underutilised, despite research suggesting they offer safe and effective care, and considerable international literature recording patient satisfaction with these roles. This study aimed to explore factors underlying consumer satisfaction with primary health care nurse practitioner and pharmacist prescriber services. METHODS: As part of a larger realist evaluation, 21 individuals receiving advanced practitioner services participated in semi-structured interviews. These interviews were transcribed and coded against context-mechanism-outcome configurations tested and refined throughout the research. RESULTS: Study findings emphasise the importance of consumer confidence in the provider as a mechanism for establishing advanced practitioner roles. Underlying this confidence is a recognition that these practitioners work in a more accessible manner, engage at the individual's 'level', and operate with passion. CONCLUSIONS: This research offers learnings to re-engineer service delivery within primary health care to make best use of the entire health care team by including consumers in the design and introduction of new roles.

Successfully developing advanced practitioner roles: policy and practice mechanisms.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to lay out how advanced practitioner development occurs in New Zealand primary health care settings. The paper specifically focuses on mechanisms occurring across policy creation and in practice leading to successful role development. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The authors applied a realist approach involving interviews, document review and field log observations to create refined theories explaining how successful development occurs. FINDINGS: Three final mechanisms were found to influence successful advanced practitioner role development: engagement in planning and integrating roles; establishing opportunities as part of a well-defined career pathway; and championing role uptake and work to full scopes of practice. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: This research focuses on one snapshot in time only; it illustrates the importance of actively managing health workforce change. Future investigations should involve the continued and systematic evaluation of advanced practitioner development. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The successful development of advanced practitioner roles in a complex system necessitates recognising how to trigger mechanisms occurring at times well beyond their introduction. SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS: Potential candidates for new roles should expect roadblocks in their development journey. Successfully situating these roles into practice through having a sustainable and stable workforce supply provides patients with access to a wider range of services. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This is the first time a realist evaluation has been undertaken, in New Zealand, of similar programmes operating across multiple sites. The paper brings insights into the process of developing new health programmes within an already established system.

Comparing initial and follow-up responders to a New Zealand patient experience survey.

AIM: This study investigates non-response bias in an inpatient experience survey with a low response rate by comparing sociodemographic characteristics and response behaviours of initial responders with responders to follow-up, and further explores the factors contributing to non-response. Prior research suggests non-response may be endogenously related to patient characteristics. METHOD: We re-contacted a convenience sample of non-responders to a nationally representative, cross-sectional inpatient survey conducted in New Zealand. Participants were given a subset of six items drawn from the initial survey and the opportunity to disclose reasons for non-response. Responders to follow-up (n=163) were subsequently compared with responders to the initial survey (n=910) using chi-squared tests of association and logistic regression to assess differences in sociodemographic variables and substantive responses. RESULTS: We find no significant differences in the responses given by initial and follow-up responders. The most common reasons for non-response were "can't remember" (33%), not receiving the survey (25%) or being too busy at the time (25%). CONCLUSION: Responders to follow-up have similar experiences of inpatient care in New Zealand to initial responders. Further study is needed to strengthen inferences regarding hard-to-reach patients.

In place of fear: aligning health care planning with system objectives to achieve financial sustainability.

The financial sustainability of publicly funded health care systems is a challenge to policymakers in many countries as health care absorbs an ever increasing share of both national wealth and government spending. New technology, aging populations and increasing public expectations of the health care system are often cited as reasons why health care systems need ever increasing funding as well as reasons why universal and comprehensive public systems are unsustainable. However, increases in health care spending are not usually linked to corresponding increases in need for care within populations. Attempts to promote financial sustainability of systems such as limiting the range of services is covered or the groups of population covered may compromise their political sustainability as some groups are left to seek private cover for some or all services. In this paper, an alternative view of financial sustainability is presented which identifies the failure of planning and management of health care to reflect needs for care in populations and to integrate planning and management functions for health care expenditure, health care services and the health care workforce. We present a Health Care Sustainability Framework based on disaggregating the health care expenditure into separate planning components. Unlike other approaches to planning health care expenditure, this framework explicitly incorporates population health needs as a determinant of health care requirements, and provides a diagnostic tool for understanding the sources of expenditure increase.

Equity in statin use in New Zealand.

INTRODUCTION: Preventive medications such as statins are used to reduce cardiovascular risk. There is some evidence to suggest that people of lower socioeconomic position are less likely to be prescribed statins. In New Zealand, Maori have higher rates of cardiovascular disease. AIM: This study aimed to investigate statin utilisation by socioeconomic position and ethnicity in a region of New Zealand. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study in which data were collected on all prescriptions dispensed from all pharmacies in one city during 2005/6. Linkage with national datasets provided information on patients' age, gender and ethnicity. Socioeconomic position was identified using the New Zealand Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation 2006. RESULTS: Statin use increased with age until around 75 years. Below age 65 years, those in the most deprived socioeconomic areas were most likely to receive statins. In the 55-64 age group, 22.3% of the most deprived population received a statin prescription (compared with 17.5% of the mid and 18.6% of the least deprived group). At ages up to 75 years, use was higher amongst Maori than non-Maori, particularly in middle age, where Maori have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. In the 45-54 age group, 11.6% of Maori received a statin prescription, compared with 8.7% of non-Maori. DISCUSSION: Statin use approximately matched the pattern of need, in contrast to other studies which found under-treatment of people of low socioeconomic position. A PHARMAC campaign to increase statin use may have increased use in high-risk groups in New Zealand.

Efficiency, effectiveness, equity (E3). Evaluating hospital performance in three dimensions.

There are well-established frameworks for comparing the performance of health systems cross-nationally on multiple dimensions. A sub-set of such comprehensive schema is taken up by criteria specifically applied to health service delivery, including hospital performance. We focus on evaluating hospital performance, using the New Zealand public hospital sector over the period 2001-2009 as a pragmatic and illustrative case study for cross-national application. We apply a broad three-dimensional matrix--efficiency, effectiveness, equity--each based on two measures, and we undertake ranking comparisons of 35 hospitals. On the efficiency dimension--relative stay, day surgery--we find coefficients of variation of 10.8% and 8.5% respectively in the pooled data, and a slight trend towards a narrowing of inter-hospital variation over time. The correlation between these indicators is low (.20). For effectiveness--post-admission mortality, unplanned readmission--the coefficient of variation is generally higher (24.1% and 12.2%), and the trend is flat. The correlation is again low (.21). The equity dimension is assessed by quantifying the degree of ethnic and socio-economic variation for each hospital. The coefficient of variation is much higher--40.7-66.5% for ethnicity, 55.8-84.4% for socio-economic position--the trend over time is mixed, and the correlation is moderate (.41). On averaging the rank of hospitals across all measures it is evident that there is limited consistency across the three constituent dimensions. While it is possible to assess hospital performance across three dimensions using an illustrative set of standard measures derived from routine data, there appears to be little consistency in hospital rankings on these New Zealand data for the period 2001-2009. However, the methodology of using rankings derived from readily available data--possibly allied with multiple or composite indicator models--has potential for the cross-national comparison of hospital profiles, and assessments in three dimensions provide a more holistic and rounded account of performance.

Too much and too little? Prevalence and extent of antibiotic use in a New Zealand region.

OBJECTIVES: Although antibiotic use in the community is a significant contributor to resistance, little is known about social patterns of use. This study aimed to explore the use of antibiotics by age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and rurality. METHODS: Data were obtained on all medicines dispensed to ambulatory patients in one isolated town for a year, and data on antibiotics are presented in this paper. Demographic details were obtained from pharmacy records or by matching to a national patient dataset. RESULTS: During the study year, 51% of the population received a prescription for one or more antibiotics, and on average people in the region received 10.15 defined daily doses (DDDs). Prevalence of use was higher for females (ratio, 1.18), and for young people (under 25) and the elderly (75 and over), and the amount in DDDs/person/year broadly followed this pattern. Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) were less likely to receive a prescription (48% of the population) than non-Maori (55%) and received smaller quantities on average. Rural Maori, including rural Maori children, received few prescriptions and low quantities of antibiotics compared with other population groups. CONCLUSIONS: The level of antibiotic use in the general population is high, despite campaigns to try to reduce unnecessary use. The prevalence of acute rheumatic fever is high amongst rural Maori, and consequently treatment guidelines recommend prophylactic use of antibiotics for sore throat in this population. This makes the comparatively very low level of use of antibiotics amongst rural Maori children very concerning.

Complexity, evaluation and the effectiveness of community-based interventions to reduce health inequalities.

Reducing health inequalities has been part of the New Zealand government's agenda since the early 1990s. As a result, interventions have been implemented nationally with the explicit goal of reducing health inequalities. This paper describes findings from a comparative case study of two community-based interventions - carried out in different New Zealand communities. Complexity theory was used as an analytic tool to examine the case data, and provided a systematic way in which to explore 'local' issues by taking a 'whole system' perspective. The findings showed that two important influences on the successful implementation of the interventions were the existence and capacity of local organisations and their relationships with government agencies. The analysis provided a dynamic picture of shared influences on the interventions in different communities and in doing so offered insight into intervention effectiveness. It is argued in this article that, for examining intervention effectiveness, it is essential to have a theoretical understanding of the behaviour of the complex system in which they are implemented. This theoretical understanding has implications for the appropriate design of interventions to reduce health inequalities, and in turn should lead to more meaningful ways to evaluate them.

New Zealand general practitioners' non-urgent referrals to surgeons: who and why?

AIM: To describe the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients referred by general practitioners (GPs) to both public and private sectors for non-urgent surgical assessment. METHOD: During 2004, a cohort of 1420 adult patients with the potential to benefit from elective surgery was recruited into the study by their GPs. GPs recorded patient demographics and reasons for referral. RESULTS: 345 out of 828 eligible GPs (42%) agreed to participate in the study and submitted data on 1603 referrals, 2.4 referrals per reporting week. After excluding ACC cases, data on 1420 referrals were analysed. Forty-two percent of those referred were male and 69% were European New Zealanders. The mean age was 55 years. The largest number of referrals were made to general surgery (37%), followed by orthopaedics (19%), gynaecology (12%), and plastic surgery (10%). The modal level of urgency was "routine" and in 24% of cases cancer was a possibility. The GP felt surgery was needed in 47% of cases, while in 73%, assistance with diagnosis and management was sought. In only 3% of eligible cases was no referral made. CONCLUSION: Elective surgical referral makes up a significant proportion of GP workload. In more than half of cases advice on diagnosis or management, rather than surgery, was sought, and in nearly two-thirds the patient was aged less than 65 years. Cancer control was a relatively frequent goal of referral. The very small number of cases where a desired referral was not made suggests that GP and patient expectations are adjusted to service capacity.

Assessing the capacity of the health services research community in Australia and New Zealand.

BACKGROUND: In order to profile the health services research community in Australia and New Zealand and describe its capacity, a web-based survey was administered to members of the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand (HSRAANZ) and delegates of the HSRAANZ's Third Health Services Research and Policy Conference. RESULTS: Responses were received from 191 individuals (68%). The responses of the 165 (86%) who conducted or managed health services research indicated that the health services research community in Australia and New Zealand is characterised by highly qualified professionals who have come to health services research via a range of academic and professional routes (including clinical backgrounds), the majority of whom are women aged between 35 and 54 who have mid- to senior- level appointments. They are primarily employed in universities and, to a lesser extent, government departments and health services. Although most are employed in full time positions, many are only able to devote part of their time to health services research, often juggling this with other professional roles. They rely heavily on external funding, as only half have core funding from their employing institution and around one third have employment contracts of one year or less. Many view issues around building the capacity of the health services research community and addressing funding deficits as crucial if health services research is to be translated into policy and practice. Despite the difficulties they face, most are positive about the support and advice available from peers in their work settings, and many are actively contributing to knowledge through academic and other written outputs. CONCLUSION: If health services research is to achieve its potential in Australia and New Zealand, policy-makers and funders must take the concerns of the health services research community seriously, foster its development, and contribute to maximising its capacity through a sustainable approach to funding. There is a clear need for a strategic approach, where the health services research community collaborates with competitive granting bodies and government departments to define and fund a research agenda that balances priority-driven and investigator-driven research and which provides support for training and career development.

Clinicians' reported use of clinical priority assessment criteria and their attitudes to prioritization for elective surgery: a cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the attitudes of clinicians working in New Zealand publicly funded hospitals towards prioritizing patients for elective surgery, and their reported use of clinical priority assessment criteria (CPAC). DESIGN: A cross-sectional study using a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire drew on themes identified from an earlier qualitative study. Questions were closed and information was sought about perceptions of the need to prioritize patients, effective ways of doing so and the use of CPAC. SETTING: New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS: A national sample of cardiologists, cardiac, general and orthopaedic surgeons, and registrars. RESULTS: Three hundred and thirty-two clinicians responded to the survey (74.1%). Respondents generally agreed that a nationally consistent method of prioritizing patients for surgery was required but felt their clinical judgement was the most effective way of prioritizing patients. Current CPAC were considered to be administrative tools and there was marked variation in their reported use. Consistent use of CPAC using the constructs provided was more likely to be reported by cardiac specialists than general or orthopaedic surgeons. Other features of the hospital system in which surgeons worked also had a major impact on access to elective surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians recognized the need for a nationally consistent method of prioritizing patients. Although most did not consider current CPAC were effective in achieving this, many felt there was some potential in further development of tools. However, further development is problematic in the absence of objective measures of need and ability to benefit.

Equity of access to elective surgery: reflections from NZ clinicians.

OBJECTIVES: To explore factors potentially influencing equitable access to elective surgery in New Zealand by describing clinicians' perceptions of equity and the factors they consider when prioritising patients for elective surgery. METHODS: A qualitative study in selected New Zealand localities. A purposive sample of 49 general practitioners, specialists and registrars were interviewed. Data were analysed thematically. RESULTS: General practitioners described unequal opportunities for patients to access primary and secondary care and, in particular, private sector elective surgery. They felt that socio-economically disadvantaged patients were less able to advocate for themselves and were more vulnerable to being lost to the elective surgical booking system as well as being less able to access private care. Both GPs and secondary care clinicians described situations where they would personally advocate for individual patients to improve their access. Advocacy was related to clinicians' perceptions of the 'value' that patients would receive from the surgery and patients' needs for public sector funding. CONCLUSIONS: The structure of the health system contributes to inequities in access to elective care in New Zealand. Subjective decision making by clinicians has the potential to advantage or disadvantage patients through the weighting clinicians place on socio-demographic factors when making rationing decisions. Review of the potential structural barriers to equitable access, further public debate and guidance for clinicians on the relative importance of socio-demographic factors in deciding access to rationed services are required for allocation of services to be fair.

Use of, and attitudes to, clinical priority assessment criteria in elective surgery in New Zealand.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the ways patients access elective surgery in New Zealand, and to understand the use of, and attitudes to, clinical priority assessment criteria (CPAC) in determining access to publicly funded elective surgery. METHODS: A qualitative study in selected New Zealand localities. A purposive sample of general practitioners, surgeons and administrators in publicly funded hospitals were interviewed. Data were analysed by a process of thematic analysis. RESULTS: Sixty-five interviews were completed. General practitioners had a key role in determining which patients were seen in the public sector and, by utilising strategies to actively advocate for patients, influenced both waiting times for first assessment by surgeons and for surgery. CPAC had been developed as decision support guides with the intention that they would provide transparency and equity in determining access. However, there was variation in the way CPAC were being used both in score construction and in the influence of the score on access to surgery. The management of the hospital system also limited the extent to which CPAC could be used to prioritise patients for surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Variability in the use of CPAC tools meant that at the time of the study they did not provide a transparent and equitable method of determining access to surgery. This highlights the difficulties in developing and implementing CPAC and suggests that further development is difficult in the absence of evidence to identify patients who will benefit the most from surgery.

Reform and counter reform: how sustainable is New Zealand's latest health system restructuring?

New Zealand's health care sector has undergone almost continual restructuring since the early 1980s. In the latest set of reforms, 21 district health boards (DHBs) have been established with responsibility for promoting health, purchasing services for their populations and delivering publicly owned health services. Boards will be governed by a mix of elected and appointed members, will be responsible for arranging the delivery of primary and community health services, and will own and run public hospitals and related facilities. We clarify the differences and continuities between earlier reforms and the 2000/01 structures, as well as the current reforms' potential strengths and weaknesses. The paper discusses whether the DHB model was the only feasible option for restructuring and whether the dynamics of the new system may lead to further changes, particularly on the purchaser side of the system. Given that DHBs face potential conflict between their purchasing and provision roles, and given the potential advantages that primary care organisations may have as purchasers, we conclude that it is possible that all or part of the purchasing function of DHBs might eventually shift to primary care organisations, leaving the DHBs as hospital-based provider organisations.