Simply the best

The Martinborough Medical Centre has been judged the Best New Zealand Rural Practice, the Award being presented at the recent Rural Practitioner’s Conference held in Dunedin.

The award was judged on patient’s satisfaction both on the care received and numerous other factors: friendly helpful reception greeting, the caring nurses, a pleasant waiting room, children’s treatment to name a few. The Martinborough Centre was particularly highly rated on ‘service above and beyond the norm’.

An example of this was the purchase of expensive ultra sound equipment to overcome the patient’s travel required to Masterton and the frequent delays experienced in having an ultra sound appointment. Dr Philip studied for over a year to obtain the required Degree to become an ultra sound operator, while continuing to run his practice.

This is a busy practice having over two and a half thousand registered patients with up to an extra five hundred casual patients seen over the summer holiday period. It requires a considerable staff to keep such a practice running and that fact that all were highly spoken of went towards winning the Award.

Dr Steve Philip is assisted by Dr Janet O’Reilly and Nurse Practitioner Rachael Pretorius. The Nurse Practitioner sees patients with lesser problems and prescribes the required medication allowing the doctors greater time to attend to more serious cases. Three practice nurses, Dawn Colton, Annette Castles and Cara Laing who is in her final year of study to become a nurse practitioner. The receptionists are Kiwa Mitchell, Keely McGibbon, Alice Cantwell, who also helps Pam with administration and Joeline Colton part time. Pam Shackleton is the busy Practice Manager.

Pam said that travel to Masterton for a specialist appointment or hospital based treatment is frequently a problem for people without transport and with an aging population this number is growing. To help save local people travel the Health Centre also has consulting rooms used by visiting optician, physio, paediatrist, diabetes and mental health workers. Work is soon to begin on enlarging the centre to include a pharmacy and a further consulting room.

Pam is always looking at ways to further up-skill the nurses and, with an eye to the future, frequently hosts trainee doctors and nurses. “If they see what a pleasant place the centre is they may decide to fill an appointment here one day” she explained. Pam sends a special thanks to the patients who took the time to write and send their appreciations of the practice to the Rural Doctors’ panel.