Media Statement for World Smokefree Day Saturday 31 May, 2014
Tuesday 27 May 2014
Three Rivers calls in Turanga Health top guns!
Three Rivers Medical is using local smoking cessation experts to phone hundreds of patients who smoke, and help them
into a quit programme if they want.
Turanga Health smoking cessation kaiāwhina Mere Waihi and Christine Nepia have many years between them helping Turanga
Health whānau and other referred patients quit smoking. Because of their knowledge and skill they’ve been seconded by
Three Rivers Medical to help out some of its patients.
Three Rivers Medical Chief Executive Ingrid Collins said “we wanted the best people to help with the job.”
“Mere and Christine and the rest of the smoking cessation team are extremely professional and we were more than
confident they could help us do it. They are very good at it. We have smoking cessation targets we want to meet but they
are challenging because you have to talk to everyone who is registered at your practice, and we’ve got 18,500.”
In April Three Rivers Medical tasked Mere and Christine with contacting 1800 patients by telephone, check if they were
still smokers, and if they were, offer them brief advice on how to quit. They had until the end of June to get through
the 1800 calls. They have been working out of a Three Rivers Medical office with a telephone and a computer spreadsheet.
On day one they made 128 calls in four hours! Mere says each call starts something like this: “Kia ora. My name is Mere
and I am ringing from Three Rivers Medical Centre. We are updating our records and our records show you are a smoker. Is
that correct?”
By the middle of May Mere and Christine had dialed 2027 numbers and talked to 754 people. They had made 91 referrals to
the Turanga Health smoking cessation service. Mere and Christine have made many of the calls in evenings and weekends in
an effort to connect with more people. Mere says it’s been a new way of working and building a rapport with the patient
is key. “You know what it’s like getting a phone call around tea time! It can be annoying. So we quickly identify who we
are and why we are calling.
They aim to make a favourable impact at the start of the call using an efficient but friendly tone. If a patient says
they aren’t considering quitting then Mere does not apply pressure. If the patient does indicate an interest they
outline the options they could consider, including the Turanga Health smoking cessation programme. “It’s a real
advantage to know the programme so well because then you can promote it.” While Mere and Christine have made the
majority of the phone calls they have had some help from their Turanga Health smoking cessation colleagues.
Ms Collins says Three Rivers Medical staff talked to hundreds of patients during the year about smoking but at the cut
off date on 30 June the practice was going to fall short of reaching its target. “We are more on track to reach it now
and best of all we have just under 100 patients signed up and ready to start a smoking cessation programme which is good
for them and good for their families.” Ingrid says the practice will now also use the Turanga Health smoking cessation
staff to train new doctors in how to give brief advice to patients who smoke.
The Three Rivers Medical/Turanga Health telephone project is going so well other general practices want Turanga Health
staff to help their patients over the phone. Turanga Health Chief Executive Reweti Ropiha says the project has piqued
the interest of Midlands Health Network which supports around 90 general practices with programmes and tools to improve
patient health. “Midlands has asked us to help out some of the patients in its general practices across the North Island
and because the initial contact is made by telephone we are looking at the proposal.”
ENDS