Nurses Services
Nurses Services
Our highly skilled and caring team of nurses are here to help you manage your health issues, providing complementary skills to our team of doctors. They will often be your first point of contact if you are unwell and will support your doctor in all aspects of your healthcare.
All women who have been sexually active should have regular cervical smear tests every three years between the ages of 20 and 69. This includes women who have been immunised against HPV.
This test detects abnormal cells that could become cervical cancer if left untreated. These cells are often made abnormal by human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus. Regular tests and treatment reduce the likelihood of this cancer by around 90%.
Liquid nitrogen is a fast, effective treatment 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.
Sometimes your doctor needs to take a blood or urine sample to help diagnose what is wrong with you or to measure something in your blood so that the right medication is given to you.
While urine can generally be tested in 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 must go to a specialist lab further away, so the result might take a little longer.
If your test results are abnormal, your Doctor or the Nurse will contact you by telephone, text or email. Due to the number of test results received, you will not receive a call for normal results, but if you have a concern or still would like to know your results, you may call the nurse or register for the patient portal (only available for our enrolled patients) enabling you to see the results once the Doctor has viewed them.
Immunisations are provided at all primary care practices and are one of the most important services.
Immunisation is a way of boosting the body’s immune system against specific infections. We provide a range of different immunisations, many of which are free according to the National Immunisation Schedule. These include all your child’s immunisations, from babies to adolescents.
Additional vaccines are provided free for certain eligible groups considered to be at high risk because of other medical conditions.
Hibiscus Coast Medical Centre is one of a group of General Practices within WDHB, running a program called the KARE PROJECT. The Kare Project is a funded program that is proving to provide better overall health care for older people in the community with the aim of keeping them well supported and living independently for longer. Being a part of the Kare Project will give you more time with your GP and Practice Nurse to thoroughly assess your health concerns, to plan and coordinate your health care.
Your participation is completely voluntary. The comprehensive assessment and subsequent care planning will be provided to you at no charge. You will be allocated one of the Kare Project Nurses within our medical centre. Your initial assessment will take place with your allocated Nurse and will take approximately 60 minutes. You will then be followed up by the nurse every three months, either by phone call or visit, all free of charge.
If you are over 75 (over 65 if Māori or Pacific Island) and would be interested in engaging with this project, please contact the medical centre to advise us or discuss with your GP and one of the Kare Project nurses will be in touch.
We have Hibiscus Coast medical nurses trained to do micro suctioning. This procedure is now considered the best practice for ear wax removal.
It is a gentle vacuum procedure that leaves the ear dry and is considered the healthiest option. The procedure is performed using microscopes, which in our opinion, is a must to view the ear canal clearly to ensure the safe removal of wax. You will be required to see your GP before having this procedure.
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 a doctor can read. It can give information about previous heart attacks or problems with the heart rhythm.
Spirometry is a tool that measures how effectively your lungs are working. It can show how much air the lungs can hold (their volume) and how much air can be breathed in and out (inhaled and exhaled), which is called flow.
This tool assesses the damage caused by conditions like COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – a group that includes bronchitis and emphysema), pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, and asthma. Results are shown on a graph called a pneumotachograph.
