Western Bay of Plenty PHO

Two general practices in the Western Bay of Plenty - The Doctors Bayfair and The Doctors Papamoa – undertook a project in 2021 to understand the experiences of Māori and Pacific people living with diabetes who are enrolled at their practices. The aim of the project was to co-design solutions that better met these patients’ needs and improved their access to services such as annual diabetes reviews and new medications (noting that access was lower than other population groups).

A co-design team included staff members from the clinical, management and reception teams of the clinics together with Māori and Pacific consumer members and two community members, enabling a wide range of perspectives to be shared and incorporated. The co-design team held face-to-face interviews and two focus group hui to identify patients’ positive and less-positive experiences and hear suggestions for improvement, and then identify key themes and findings.

From the findings, the co-design team recommended a number of changes the practices could make to improve their diabetes service for Māori and Pacific people, including maximising the use of Māori reception team members to make initial contact with patients, encouraging the attendance of whānau or a support person at appointments, and reviewing options to improve continuity when accessing healthcare. The first of these changes has seen a positive increase in attendance for diabetes annual reviews, especially for Māori.