• Pregnancy vaccinations
• Childhood immunisation programme
• 45 year old vaccinations
• 65 year old vaccinations
• Adult flu vaccine
• Child flu vaccine
• Diphtheria / Tetanus / Pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine
• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine
• Measles / Mumps / Rubella (MMR) vaccine
• Meningococcal vaccine
• Shingles vaccine
• Travel vaccinations

Immunisation is the safest and most effective way to provide protection for you and your tamariki’s health. For more information view the NZ immunisation schedule.

This practice offers a full postal recall system for all immunisations, including childhood immunisations. Our highly skilled practice nurse team can offer you all the information and advice you may need for this most important and effective health process.

A patient portal is a secure online tool provided by GP practices that can allow convenient access to your health information as well as interaction with the practice e.g. booking appointments and requesting repeat prescriptions.

Our practice uses Health365 web based portal to provide access to on-line appointment making, requests for repeat prescription, your laboratory data, your patient recalls and health status as well as immunisations and your account. All patients are encouraged to register to our on-line portal to help us meet your access requirements.

Your GP's surgery is far more than a place to go when you are feeling unwell and needing a quick cure. The doctor who sees you has gone through an extensive medical training to equip her or him to help children and adults of all ages with a range of physical and emotional difficulties. GPs are at the centre of the healthcare hub and will be aware of services and expertise that are available locally and further-a-field. GPs are also aware of the link that stress and unhappy life events have on physical health so know when to suggest a talking therapy rather than medication.

The Westmere Medical Centre prides itself on offering high quality, patient directed, evidence based primary health care. Our team is constantly evaluating its performance against goals and we encourage patient feedback on our ability to deliver.

Primary care practices offer a range of services and are able to deal with most minor accident care. If they are not able to deal with an injury they will refer on to the appropriate service.

Our surgery is able to provide a full range of minor accident care, including the provision of full wound management such as suturing and the management of simple burns. We also provide a plaster service for the management of simple fractures.

Minor surgery is commonly provided in primary care practices, providing fast, competent removal and biopsies of skin lesions. Other services include cosmetic work such as removal of benign moles and skin tags. Ingrown toenail surgery is also commonly provided. 
These conditions do not need to be referred to a hospital, perhaps saving you a long wait or a cancelled appointment when a more serious case takes priority. 
If your doctor is unable to provide the procedure you need, he/she may know a neighbouring GP who does. Otherwise, the PHO will have a list of GPs trained in particular operations.

Dr John Cameron has undertaken significant postgraduate training in office based minor surgery procedures and we are able to offer our patients a full range of skin and skin cancer surgical care. This work includes the evaluation and management of skin cancers such as basal cell, squamous cell and malignant melanoma tumours.

A full range of procedures including simple excisions, rotation and advancement flap surgery, simple skin grafts and facial surgery are offered by our team.

Our surgery is fully equipped for such surgery with the use of full sterile surgical capability, diathermy for control of wound bleeding and full patient monitoring including pulse oximetry where applicable.

Our minor surgical services have been audited to provide complication rates as low as those obtained in full hospital surgical care but in an environment that is more patient friendly. You can even bring your own music to listen to, otherwise you will have to listen to Dr John's taste in music!

In addition to our surgical services, the Westmere Medical Centre offers a full range of skin cancer surveillance procedures and we are happy to check your skin for possible skin cancers at a booked appointment.

If surgery is unable to be provided from within our practice, we have a strong referral network to ensure you obtain the best possible skin cancer care.

Each GP surgery or primary care practice will have its own procedure for repeat prescribing but the following rules are common to most, if not all. Patients who are well-known to the practice who have a stable condition like asthma, hypertension or diabetes could be allowed to get a repeat prescription for up to six months. Repeat prescriptions are never given to patients who are not known to the practice and there is probably a blanket ban on repeats for narcotics and other drugs that could be misused as doctors are expected to monitor these drugs carefully.

We understand that your time is precious. But so is your health. The Westmere Medical Centre will work with you to ensure the most effective mechanism for looking after your health and your prescription needs. Where appropriate, we offer both a Patient Portal and a telephone repeat prescription service. If your doctor feels it is better to see you in person to review your health, we will ensure such information is given to you as soon as possible, so that your time is best looked after (as well as your health!). For patient safety and efficiency we strongly encourage our clients to utilise our H365 Patient Portal for repeat prescription requests.

Sometimes your doctor needs to take a sample of blood or urine either to discover what is wrong with you or to measure something in your blood so that the right medication is given to you. These tests could be anything from blood sugar to a full blood count or a sample of tissue to test for cancer.

While urine can generally be tested in the surgery, blood and other specimens are usually sent away for testing at a laboratory. Most results come back within 48 hours unless a very rare test is needed which has to go to a specialist lab further away when it might take a little longer.

We actively work with our patients as far as laboratory results are concerned. When a significantly abnormal result is received by the practice, we will make sure that you receive this information as quickly, effectively and appropriately as possible. To help you access your results we suggest making use of our Patient Portal which will allow you to review results from any test you have had as well as see what our clinical team advise to be the next steps.

Liquid nitrogen is a fast, effective treatment provided in many practices to treat viral warts, sun damaged skin, skin tags and many benign cosmetic lesions. It comes in a container with a nozzle and is usually applied by swab or spray. Often one treatment is all that is needed but sometimes it may need repeating after two weeks.
Because it cannot be stored for too long, you will often find that your GP will treat a number of patients one after the other. 

For more information click here.

The surgery holds sufficient liquid nitrogen stocks to provide you with this service each and every day. We do ask that each lesion for possible liquid nitrogen is reviewed by one of our doctors prior to starting therapy, to ensure that liquid nitrogen is the most appropriate treatment for your skin lesion. Once assessed, our practice nurse team will manage this ongoing care. 

All women and people with a cervix aged 25 – 69 who have ever had intimate skin-to-skin contact or been sexually active should have regular cervical screening. This includes women who have been immunised against HPV. Together, regular screening and HPV immunisation provide the best protection against cervical cancer.

There are now more options for how you have cervical screening done:

• a simple vaginal swab test for HPV, either done yourself or with help from a healthcare professional
• a cervical sample taken by a healthcare professional (used to be known as a smear test).

Talk with your healthcare provider to decide which option is best for you.

If HPV is found, you may need to have a follow-up test or be referred directly for colposcopy.

If you’ve not yet had HPV testing, you should be screened 3 years after your last test (or 1 year if immune deficient). Once you have had an HPV test, and providing HPV is not found, your next screening will be in 5 years (or 3 years if immune deficient).

For more information: Cervical screening | Time to Screen - National Screening Unit

An ECG is a recording of your heart's electrical activity. Electrode patches are attached to your skin to measure the electrical impulses given off by your heart. The result is a trace that can be read by a doctor. It can give information of previous heart attacks or problems with the heart rhythm.

The Westmere Medical Centre makes use of an electronic ECG machine that records the electrical picture of your heart directly into a digital format. This ensures your ECG information is readily available within the practice, as well as enabling us to send an electronic copy of your ECG tracing directly to our consulting cardiologists, if a specialist opinion on your recording is required.

Our practice also holds an Automatic Electrical Defibrillator (AED) for use in times of cardiac arrest. We hope to never have to use this tool, but rest assured, we have this vital piece of equipment to hand at all times to assist our community in cardiac crises.

Our surgery also holds a full range of resuscitation equipment to assist within our community in the dire situations where such tools are needed.

Another service offered to you at your GP surgery (primary care practice) is advice and immunisation before you go to another country. While you are likely to have the immunisations needed to live in New Zealand, there may be other injections you need to protect yourself before going for example to Africa or South America. In some places you will need protection from rabies or malaria. Yellow fever vaccinations are only available at approved centres; please click here to view the centres in New Zealand. Your doctor will be able to tell you what diseases you will need to be protected from in any named country and advise you on other medical matters. 

We keep a full stock of all routine travel vaccines, so we can assist you with your travel health concerns. Where we are unable to provide you with the full vaccinations required, for example to higher risk destinations, we can make arrangements for you to receive these vaccinations.

All New Zealand children are entitled to 11 free health checks from birth to three years. The checks aim to ensure that children are growing and developing as well as possible. Included in the checks are clinical assessment, health education and family/whānau support.

Baby checks are at birth and then at 24 hours, five days and around 2-4 weeks. Babies are weighed and measured to ensure that they are developing correctly. These sessions provide a great opportunity for parents to ask questions from an expert and have any problem addressed; difficulties with breastfeeding or sleep for example. They can also be used to discuss immunisations and vaccinations. These checks will be carried out by your lead maternity carer (LMC).

Between the ages of 4-6 weeks and three years, there are seven core health checks available, typically these are around 4-6 weeks, 8-10 weeks, 3-4 months, 5-7 months, 9-12 months, 15-18 months and 2-3 years. These checks may be carried out by a Well Child Provider of your choice e.g. Plunket, Māori health provider, community nurse, a general practice team (doctor and practice nurse). Your LMC will be able to give you a list of Well Child Providers in your area.

More information about Well Child services is available on the Ministry of Health website.
 

LARC methods are very effective at preventing unplanned pregnancy and are “fit and forget” forms of contraception – you don’t need to remember them every day or every month. LARC methods:

• Intrauterine Contraceptive Devices (IUCD or IUD) are inserted through the cervix into a woman’s uterus. IUCDs may be either hormonal (Mirena^® or Jaydess^{® )} or non-hormonal (copper IUCD).
• Jadelle^® is a hormone-releasing implant that is inserted just under the skin of the upper arm.

Depending on the type of device, it will need to be changed after between three and ten years.

Read more about LARC methods here

Our practice can offer insertion of IUCD and Mirena devices. Insertion of these devices requires an initial consultation prior to the insertion itself. In addtion to IUCD and Mirena management, our practice also offers insertion and removal of implantable contraceptive devices such as JADELLE.

• Telehealth consultations for enrolled patients only
• Video consultations
• Phone consultations

A virtual consultation is a way of having an appointment with your healthcare provider, but not in person. This is usually done via a video app or a phone call. For more detailed information about telehealth consultations, please see the guide from Healthify.

We can offer telephone and secure video consultations to all our enrolled patients. When booking an appointment either by phone, portal or email, please advise if you would prefer to have a "virtual" consultation and what process (e.g. phone or video) you would prefer. Virtual consults are chargeable at our usual consultation fee rates.