Services

• Adult and Child Medical Care

• Your GP's surgery is far more than a place to go when you are feeling unwell and needing a quick cure. The doctor who sees you has gone through an extensive medical training to equip her or him to help children and adults of all ages with a range of physical and emotional difficulties. GPs are at the centre of the healthcare hub and will be aware of services and expertise that are available locally and further-a-field. GPs are also aware of the link that stress and unhappy life events have on physical health so know when to suggest a talking therapy rather than medication.
  

• Minor Accident Care

• Primary care practices offer a range of services and are able to deal with most minor accident care in regular appointment times. If they are not able to deal with an injury they will refer on to the appropriate service.
  

• Repeat Prescriptions

• Each GP surgery or primary care practice will have its own procedure for repeat prescribing but the following rules are common to most, if not all. Patients who are well-known to the practice who have a stable condition like asthma, hypertension or diabetes could be allowed to get a repeat prescription for up to six months. Repeat prescriptions are never given to patients who are not known to the practice and there is probably a blanket ban on repeats for narcotics and other drugs that could be misused as doctors are expected to monitor these drugs carefully.
  

• Lab Results

• Sometimes your doctor needs to take a sample of blood or urine either to discover what is wrong with you or to measure something in your blood so that the right medication is given to you. These tests could be anything from blood sugar to a full blood count or a sample of tissue to test for cancer.
  While urine can generally be tested in the surgery, blood and other specimens are usually sent away for testing at a laboratory. Most results come back within 48 hours unless a very rare test is needed which has to go to a specialist lab further away when it might take a little longer.
  

• Liquid Nitrogen

• Liquid nitrogen is a fast, effective treatment provided in many practices to treat viral warts, sun damaged skin, skin tags and many benign cosmetic lesions. It comes in a container with a nozzle and is usually applied by swab or spray. Often one treatment is all that is needed but sometimes it may need repeating after two weeks.
  Because it cannot be stored for too long, you will often find that your GP will treat a number of patients one after the other. 
  

• Immunisations

• Immunisations are provided at all primary care practices and are one of the most important services they provide. Immunisation has led to the decline of many lethal diseases including, most recently, meningococcal B meningitis.
  Babies are routinely immunised for tetanus, polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type B, which are now combined in one injection. Immunisation for measles, mumps and rubella are also provided in one injection. Injections are normally done by specially qualified nurses or doctors, having ensured beforehand that the child is not ill or suffering from allergies. Each child has his or her own document to keep a record of these injections. Under the age of 5 this is usually their Well Child book. The immunisation record will need to be shown, for example, when starting school or early childcare. The staff will also record the immunisation details on New Zealand’s National Immunisation Register. This information system holds details of all immunisations given to children here. The computer will alert families when immunisations are due.
  
  Pneumococcal vaccine and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine are now included in the immunisation programme. Pneumococcal vaccine is free for children aged 4 years and under, the HPV vaccine is free for girls and young women born from 1 January 1990. The influenza and tuberculosis (TB) vaccines are each provided free for certain eligible groups. Patients can also request chicken pox, rotavirus, meningococcal B, hepatitis A and travel vaccines but since these carry no government subsidy, you will have to pay for them. Reactions to immunisation are increasingly extremely rare following improvements in vaccine research and production.
  

• Well Baby Checks

• Babies are checked periodically during their first year of life to ensure that they are developing correctly. The first appointment is usually a few days after the mother and child have returned home after the birth, then a fortnight later, then monthly up to four months then at six, nine months and at a year. Babies are weighed and measured to make sure that they are arriving at the various developmental milestones. 
  Apart from checking an infant’s physical and emotional growth, these sessions provide a great opportunity for parents to ask questions from an expert and have any problem addressed; difficulties with breastfeeding or sleep for example. They are also used to discuss immunisations and vaccinations.