Issue 279 - 22 June 2023

Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest. The Digest has links to key evidence of interest, with access to new content arranged by topic.

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Article Access

For articles that aren't open access, contact your DHB library, or organisational or local library for assistance in accessing the full text. If your organisation has a subscription, you may be able to use the icon under full text links in PubMed to access the full article.

Health Equity (New Zealand)

Conceptualising relational care from an Indigenous Māori perspective: A scoping review
The objective of this scoping review, published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, was to identify and describe the attributes of relational care from an Indigenous Māori healthcare consumer perspective.

Quality Improvement (New Zealand)

Code of expectations for health entities' engagement with consumers and whānau 
The code of expectations for health entities’ engagement with consumers and whānau, published by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, sets the expectations for how health entities must work with consumers, whānau and communities in the planning, design, delivery and evaluation of health services.

International Perspectives on Modifications to the Surgical Safety Checklist
Modification of the World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) is a critical component of its implementation. To facilitate the SSC's use, it is important to know how surgical teams modify their SSCs, their reasons for making modifications, and the opportunities and challenges teams face in SSC tailoring. The objective of this study, published in JAMA Network Open, was to study SSC modifications in high-income hospital settings in 5 countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Quality Improvement (International)

Learning and development needs for successful staff and consumer partnerships on healthcare quality improvement committees: a co-produced cross-sectional online survey
This study, published in the Australian Health Review, aimed to conduct a learning and development needs analysis of quality improvement partnership capabilities of staff and consumers on partnership committees.

Cancer Services (New Zealand)

'Survivorship care is one big gap': a qualitative study of post-treatment supportive care in Aotearoa New Zealand
This study, published in BMC Health Services Research, focuses on the provision of supportive care services and programmes for cancer survivors post-treatment in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ).

Cancer Services (International)

Improving access to breast cancer screening by women with learning disabilities: a literature review
Breast cancer screening can facilitate earlier diagnosis and improved outcomes. However, women with learning disabilities are less likely to attend breast cancer screening than the general population. This article, published in Learning Disability Practice, reports the findings of a literature review that aimed to identify the barriers that prevent women with learning disabilities from accessing breast cancer screening and, through synthesis of the findings, identify solutions to improve attendance rates.

Cannabis‐based medicines and medical cannabis for adults with cancer pain
The objective of this Cochrane Review was to evaluate the benefits and harms of cannabis‐based medicines, including medical cannabis, for treating pain and other symptoms in adults with cancer compared to placebo or any other established analgesic for cancer pain.

Emergency Department Services (New Zealand)

Pacific patients’ reasons for attending the emergency department of Counties Manukau for non-urgent conditions
The aim of this study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, was to determine Pacific patients’ reasons for Emergency Department (ED) use for non-urgent conditions by Pacific people at Counties Manukau Health.

Primary Health Care (International)

Models of social prescribing to address non-medical needs in adults: a scoping review
The health and wellbeing consequences of social determinants of health and health behaviours are well established. This has led to a growing interest in social prescribing, which involves linking people to services and supports in the community and voluntary sectors to address non-medical needs. However, there is considerable variability in approaches to social prescribing with little guidance on how social prescribing could be developed to reflect local health systems and needs. The purpose of this scoping review, published in BMC Health Services Research, was to describe the types of social prescribing models used to address non-medical needs to inform co-design and decision-making for social prescribing program developers.

Primary Mental Health (New Zealand)

Young people's experiences of depression and anxiety symptoms
This snapshot, published by the Growing Up in New Zealand Study, explored young people's experiences of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Primary Mental Health (International)

Service user involvement in mental health service commissioning, development and delivery: A systematic review of service level outcomes
Service user involvement is increasingly considered essential in mental health service development and delivery. However, the impact of this involvement on services is not well documented. This systematic review, published in Health Expectations, aimed to understand how user involvement shapes service commissioning, development and delivery, and if/how this leads to improved service-level outcomes.

Weight Management (New Zealand)

Barriers to obesity health care in general practice from rural Waikato GP perspectives: A qualitative study
Over 34% of New Zealand (NZ) adults are classed as obese, which reduces quality of life for many individuals. Those living in rural areas, high-deprivation communities, and indigenous Māori populations are more likely to experience obesity and related co-morbidities than other cohorts. General practice is positioned as most suitable to deliver effective weight management health care; however, little is understood about the rural general practitioner (GP) experience in NZ, despite having the majority of patients at high risk of developing obesity. The aim of this study, published in The Australian Journal of Rural Health, was to investigate rural GP perspectives on barriers to delivering weight management.

Weight Management (International)

Healthy eating interventions delivered in early childhood education and care settings for improving the diet of children aged six months to six years
The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effectiveness of healthy eating interventions delivered in Early Childhood Education Centers settings for improving dietary intake in children aged six months to six years, relative to usual care, no intervention or an alternative, non‐dietary intervention.

Disability Services (New Zealand)

Inequities in the physical activity of disabled young people in Aotearoa New Zealand: a stakeholder SWOT analysis of the physical activity sector
Disabled people, particularly children and adolescents, tend to participate in less physical activity than their non-disabled peers on average. The purpose of this study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, was to conduct a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the physical activity sector in Aotearoa New Zealand with respect to physical activity participation and promotion among disabled young people.

Key Ministry of Health Publications

Safe Access to Opioids: Engagement summary
This publication summarises the views captured through engagement on proposed regulation changes to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1977, to improve safe access to opioids.

Smoking status of daily vapers: New Zealand Health Survey 2017/18 to 2021/22
This report presents results from new analysis to determine the smoking status of daily vapers by current smoker, ex-smoker or never-smoker status.

Health Sector Initiative

New Recycling Project Begins at Southland Hospital
Southland Hospital is doing its bit to reduce landfill as metal and plastic parts from some used clinical equipment is now being recycled.

The information available on or through this newsletter does not represent Ministry of Health policy. It is intended to provide general information to the health sector and the public, and is not intended to address specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity.