Mangapapa medical centre newsletter

MANGAPAPA MEDICAL CENTRE
Our nurses are available for blood tests, dressings, vaccinations, smears and diabetic advice, Please make an appointment for NEWSLETTER
Winter 2009
After hours Care
Please phone 8671263 and the answer phone will tell you who to contact. After-hours charges are generally higher than routine charges, We are a busy general practice—we are small but we aim for the For very severe injury, or life threatening emergencies such as chest pain, it may be better to phone 111 for the ambulance. If you We also have a special interest in youth, and run health clinics at are not sure, then phone the medical centre and speak to the Notification of results
The medical centre is open from 8.30-5.00 pm on weekdays. We will notify you of test results ordered by ourselves, by phone or On days when we are on call, the centre is open from 9.00am to Warfarin tests
Appointments Please phone 8671263
The INR test is the blood test done to check that your dose of For urgent problems such as accidents or chest pain, you will be warfarin is correct. We will tell you how often you need to have a seen as soon as possible, although it is still wise to ring first if you Have your tests done in the morning. We will phone you with the dosage after 4 pm. The dosage might be different for each day. We understand that there may be times when you are unable to Take the tablets at night, so you can change to the correct dose pay at the time of the consultation. Accounts not paid by the end of the calendar month will incur a booking fee. Long Appointments
Complaints
Because we are trying to reduce waiting times, we would prefer it Complaints also help us to improve our practice and are important if you could bring only one or two problems to the consultation. If to us. Please approach us either personally or in writing. Our you have more than 2 problems, or feel the issues will take a long policy is that when we receive a complaint, this is discussed with time to discuss, then please ask for a double appointment when relevant people and investigated. We will then reply, usually in booking. This may cost you a little more, but gives us both time to Minor surgery and IUCD insertions always need a long appointment. Please let the receptionist know that this is the H1N1 influenza or Swine flu
simple—in most years the usual seasonal influenza really stretches health resources with bursting emergency As you will know, winter is the time of year for coughs and departments and people sleeping in corridors. It was very clods, and also for influenza. This kind of influenza is called worrying that H1N1 influenza would add to this problem and seasonal influenza. Influenza kills many people every year— the health services would be overwhelmed. almost as many as car accidents. Most of the people who die from it are either very young, very elderly or pregnant, or As the virus became more widespread in countries outside have chest or heart conditions. Influenza viruses mutate and of Mexico, more was learned about it, and it seems that it change frequently, and influenza vaccine is changed every does not cause much severe illness, and causes less deaths year so that it fights the viruses that scientists think will than seasonal influenza. However, more people will catch it occur. This is why we need vaccination against influenza because most people don’t have much preexisting immunity Every so often, very different influenza viruses occur. Some Symptoms of influenza are cough, sore throat, runny nose, of these happen when viruses from animals such as birds or headache, fever of more than 38 degrees, aching all over. pigs change to be able to infect humans. The 1918 flu Some have all of these symptoms and many people have The best thing to do to prevent the virus spreading is to be This year, this happened again. The world became aware careful with sneezing and coughing, wash your hands that a flu-like virus was in Mexico, and it seemed that the frequently, and stay away from work or school if unwell death rate from this virus was high. Studies showed that this Sneeze or cough into a tissue and then dispose of it into a virus may have had its origin in pigs and so it became known covered rubbish tin. Then wash your hands. Or, if you have no tissue, cough or sneeze into your bent elbow. Wash Because it seemed to have a high death rate, many countries, including New Zealand, tried very hard to keep the Most people are managing H1N1 flu themselves at home virus from spreading to their country. This involved checking with paracetamol, rest and plenty of fluids. Ring the doctor if people at the borders and quarantining those who were sick you are getting a lot worse, have been ill for a long time, or if until tests results were back to see if the person had the you have pre-existing conditions that will make you more likely to have problems with influenza. These people This worked for a while, but as more people in more countries became infected with the virus it became obvious The Government has now made influenza vaccine free to World Health Organization has declared that the virus has anyone---this is to try to reduce the amount of seasonal reached pandemic status—this means that the virus was in influenza in our community. The current flu vaccine does not
several countries and was spreading within those countries. The NZ Health Department then switched the emphasis to Please phone and make an appointment with the nurse-
“containing“ the H1N1 virus—trying to limit and delay it’s this vaccine may save your life.
spread with in New Zealand. The reason for this was very

Source: http://www.behealthy.co.nz/myfiles/winter_2009.pdf