Mangere Health Centre won two awards - including Practice of the Year for "exceptional dedication to medical practice" - during the ninth annual ProCare Quality Awards on Saturday night.

"Mangere Health Centre is confronted with an extremely challenging environment, with little access to private health services and limited financial resources," said Dr John Elliott, one of the award judges and chair of the ProCare Clinical Governance Committee.

"Mangere Health Centre has shown exceptional dedication to medical practice and superb general practitioner service provision for a large population of high-needs patients."

The 2008 Quality Awards honoured the contribution ProCare general practices, GPs, nurses and staff make to the health care of their 650,000 patients throughout greater Auckland. The wards were presented during a gala ceremony before nearly 400 people at Auckland's Rendezvous Hotel.

Dr Adrian Gane, a Helensville doctor who significantly improved the primary health care in his community over the past 20 years, was named General Practitioner of the Year.

"If our intentions are to provide quality health care to our communities and reduce health inequalities, we could not find a better example than Dr Gane," Dr Elliott said.

The complete list of winners of the judged categories is:

MedTech Global Practice of the Year - Mangere Health Centre

Bay Audiology General Practitioner of the Year - Dr Adrian Gane of Kaipara Medical Centre

Vodafone Practice Manager of the Year - Linda Whickman of Mangere Health Centre

Practice Nurse of the Year - Rachel Madsen of Panmure Medical Centre

Health Promoting Practice - Pukekohe Family Health Centre and Tuakau Health Centre (joint winners)

Cultural Responsiveness - Seddon Street Medical Centre

General Practitioner Cell Group Leader - Dr Heather King of Balmoral Doctors

Practice Nurse Cell Group Leader - Helen Martin of Sunnybrae Medical Centre

Receptionist of the Year - Lynair Carter of Manurewa Healthcare Medical Group.

ProCare Health's Chairman Dr Peter Didsbury said: "These awards are not only a testament to the quality and innovation of General Practice in our networks, but also its passion for primary health care and population health."

The judges were: Dr Elliott; Dr Peter Foley, Chair of New Zealand Medical Association; Garry Smith, Chief Executive of Auckland District Health Board; and Dr Rod Jackson and Dr Margaret Horsburgh, both of Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland.

The judges also conferred Highly Commended awards to:

Pukekohe Family Health Care, in the Practice of the Year category

Kathy Neilson, Stoddard Road Medical Centre, and Kim Bouzaid, Manurewa Healthcare Medical Group, in the Nurse of the Year category

Linda Dixon, Balmoral Doctors, in the Practice Receptionist of the Year category.

In addition to the judged awards, Measured Performance awards were given in three categories to practices in each of ProCare's three networks: ProCare Network North (PNN), ProCare Network Auckland (PNA) and ProCare Network Manukau (PNM). These awards were determined from specific performance data recorded by ProCare. The winners were:

PHO Performance Management

Dodson Group Health Centre (PNN)
Meadowbank General Practice (PNA)
Rangitoto Medical Centre (PNM)
CVD Screening and Management

Manly Medical Centre (PNN)
Dr Peter King & Dr James Lowe Medical Services (PNA)
Seddon Street Medical Centre and Leabank Health Centre (PNM)
Continuous Planned Intervention

Family Doctors (PNN)
Balmoral Doctors (PNA)
Seddon Street Medical Centre (PNM).


ProCare Chief Executive, Ron Hooton said the Quality Awards is a great way of acknowledging the commitment and the successes of each and every ProCare practice team and outstanding individuals, as well as recognising the impact each practice has on improving the health of their communities.


"The ProCare Quality Awards gives us the opportunity to celebrate the exceptional work that is done by the front-line staff as well as the essential work done by those behind the scenes," he said.