What: Te Hono, from the Māori to link or to bridge, is a one hour multidisciplinary meeting where patient cases and questions are presented by primary care clinical teams to attending specialists. Emphasis is on respectful, open, collegial discussion rather than didactic teaching – everybody is invited to contribute. Both GPs and nurses may present cases for group discussion. The key aim is for Te Hono to foster case-based learning across primary care clinical teams. However learning is not restricted to the primary care clinical teams – our experience has shown that specialists also find Te Hono enhances their understanding of local general practice context and improves communication. There have been many positive outcomes from our previous meetings, particularly in relation to the better management of complex cases. Where possible, the Te Hono Meeting caters for requests – GPs requesting a particular speciality or combination of specialities has shown to work well. Meetings are chaired by Dr Norma Nehren, Te Hiku Hauora, Kaitaia.

When: Fourth Thursday of each month 09:00 – 10:00am.

Where: Medical Outpatients Meeting Room, Whangarei Hospital. General practices can link in via Zoom. The Zoom link is found at the bottom of each Te Hono email, sent out prior to every meeting.

To participate, please contact: Roy Davidson, Telehealth and Mobility Programme Manager, Northland District Health Board:

Email: roy.davidson@northlanddhb.org.nz

Attendees: An email from the organiser will confirm the list of attending specialists before each monthly meeting. Participants to date have included: Cardiology; Endocrinology; General Medicine; Gynaecology  Liver (tertiary); Oncology; Psychiatry; Renal; Respiratory; Rheumatology.  Dr Walaa Saweirs, Secondary Care Clinical Lead (Renal) attends most meetings to provide a consistent specialist presence.

Format: The primary care clinical lead chairs the meeting and it starts promptly at 9:00am. Cases are presented in no particular order. Discussion on each case continues until there are no further questions, after which we move to the next case. The meeting finishes at 10:00am or before if there are no further cases or questions. During the meeting Medtech, Concerto patient records or any other material accessed by participating computers or mobile devices can be shared via Zoom. Te Hono Meetings are recorded and available as an educational resource.