Media release from Total Healthcare Otara

A Primary Health Organisation in South Auckland, Total Healthcare Otara (THO), has been cited as the poorest performing PHO for immunising two year olds with a supposed rate of 32%.

Mark Vella, Executive Officer of THO, says his Board and providers are staggered at the inaccuracy of this and have records from the NDSA that tell the true story and actually put them close to the top five performers.

"I am extremely disappointed with the news releases that have slandered THO as the worst performing PHO regarding immunization rates in two media releases in the Dominion post and the National Radio" says Mr Vella.

"I have reports from the NDSA which clearly shows the figure of 32% is totally incorrect with THO achieving an average of 76% for the year 01 01 09 to 01 01 10."

In fact the three month average summaries for THO showing that its providers achieved -
73% April to 1st July 09
75% May to 1st August 09
82% July to 1st October 09 (winter months)
81 % September to 1st December 09
77% October to 1st January 10.

THO have requested a public retraction and apology from the Ministry but it fears that the damage to its name is done and shows what the league table can actually achieve when using inappropriate or incorrect data.

The irony is that it confirms their performance being in the top five for CVD risk assessment and acute phase response, yet the media focus was on the immunisation rates.

Last year THO was the lead PHO for the Counties Manukau district supporting the other PHOs in the district to get the immunization rates up. For flu vaccinations it has achieved a phenomenal delivery rate of around 3500 vaccinations to the most needy patient population over a period of two and a half weeks since they started on the 1st March.

They can achieve this with their high needs populations as their model of care utilizes the General Practice team including nurses and clinical assistants, offers extended hours at low cost from 8:00am through to 11:00 pm and offers an opportunistic model of care that treats the whole patient not just the ailment they are presenting for.