When we are sick, most of our healing is done at home, with family helping us where they can. At times this cannot be enough and professional intervention is required.
With this in mind, Dr Doug Baird and Kim Wright (Managing Director), in partnership with Pacific Homecare, have established OneCare Family Medical Centre in Papatoetoe. The family-based environment aims at providing quality and affordable primary health care for all, but with a strong focus on serving the Pacific community.
On reception at OneCare is practice manager Sierra Partsch, who welcomes visitors with a warm Pacific greeting. Sierra says Pacific people are great at taking care of each other – but often forget to take care of themselves.
“That’s where we come in handy. Our focus is to encourage our people to start taking steps towards becoming not only a healthier individual, but a healthier community.”
Dr Baird joins OneCare as resident GP on the back of a long career, based in Auckland, Northland and Waikato.
He has previously worked with Kim, who has held roles with ProCare Health PHO as Clinical Programme Manager and Pacific Health Manager. She has also worked on projects to improve health outcomes for Pacific in New Zealand and for the World Health Organisation in other Pacific nations.
During the pair’s time involved in healthcare, they have seen increasing need for more healthcare resources to be invested in the rapidly expanding Pacific community – and in particular towards the growing elderly population.
“The biggest thing for me was to create and provide services to our communities that are more responsive and that meet their needs,” Dr Baird says.
experience in primary health.
“We’ll eventually recruit nurses who are experts in such specialist fields as geriatrics, diabetes, heart disease, orthopaedics and paediatrics” Dr Baird adds.
“They will work with patients who are stable and well-managed whereas the GPs will deal with new patients, and those patients not responding to treatment – each staff member will be doing what they are most skilled at doing.”
Money is a huge inhibitor to healthcare within low socio-economic areas dotted throughout South Auckland, so OneCare is keeping the cost of treatment down for its patients, while also providing a timely, efficient service.
OneCare is utilising its relationship with Pacific Homecare (PHC), located upstairs from the medical centre on Great South Road, by recruiting PHC staff (called navigators) when patients require a translator, or someone to help navigate their way through the health care system or to providers of other services.
The medical centre strives to ensure a continuum of care, where patients are being cared for at home as well as when they visit the GP.
OneCare is a service for the community, which will provide an ‘A-plus’ level of care at a price people can afford, while achieving positive outcomes.
