The principal scientific journal for the profession in New Zealand

Daniel A R Scott, Peter W Hadden, Graham A Wilson

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on public sector ophthalmic work by New Zealand’s ophthalmologists | OPEN ACCESS

The virus SARS-CoV-2 (the cause of COVID-19) began circulating in Wuhan, China, in November 2019. It subsequently spread across the world, becoming a global pandemic.

Simon Lambracos, Lance Yuan, Andrew Kennedy-Smith

COVID-19 and the impact on urology service provision at Capital & Coast District Health Board | OPEN ACCESS

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted on societies and health systems across the world. Governmental responses to the crisis and the direct effects of the disease have been expressed differently across countries.

Vanessa Selak, Sue Crengle, Matire Harwood, Samantha Murton, Peter Crampton

Emergency COVID-19 funding to general practices in early 2020: lessons for future allocation to support equity | OPEN ACCESS

General practitioners (GPs) operate out of general practices, most of which are privately owned and funded by a combination of patient fees and government subsidies.

Geraldine Wilson, Olivia Currie, Susan Bidwell, Baraah Saeed, Anthony Dowell, Andrew Adiguna Halim, Les Toop, Ann Richardson, Ruth Savage, Ben Hudson

Empty waiting rooms: the New Zealand general practice experience with telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic | OPEN ACCESS

The primary care response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020 required significant changes by general practices throughout New Zealand.

Andy McLachlan, Chris Aldridge, Mary Morgan, Mayanna Lund, Ruvin Gabriel, Valerio Malez

An NP-led pilot telehealth programme to facilitate guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction during the COVID-19 pandemic | OPEN ACCESS

Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is increasing in prevalence and is associated with inequality, significant costs, ill health and preventable mortality.

Kyle Eggleton, Nam Bui, Felicity Goodyear-Smith

Making sure the New Zealand border is not our Achilles heel: repeated cross-sectional COVID-19 surveys in primary care | OPEN ACCESS

As is well-known, in December 2019 the Chinese authorities advised the World Health Organization of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause, originating in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Kimberley Choi, Namratha Giridharan, Abigail Cartmell, Dominique Lum, Louise Signal, Viliami Puloka, Rose Crossin, Lesley Gray, Cheryl Davies, Michael Baker, Amanda Kvalsvig

Life during lockdown: a qualitative study of low-income New Zealanders’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic | OPEN ACCESS

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a global public health response resulting in unprecedented nationwide lockdowns. Research on the public’s experience of pandemics is relatively limited, and until 2020 it did not address the scale of the current lockdowns.

Rebekah L Blakemore, Maddie J Pascoe, Kyla-Louise Horne, Leslie Livingston, Bob N Young, Beth Elias, Marie Goulden, Sophie Grenfell, Daniel J Myall, Toni L Pitcher, John C Dalrymple-Alford, Campbell J Le Heron, Tim J Anderson, Michael R MacAskill

Higher perceived stress and exacerbated motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease during the COVID-19 lockdown in New Zealand | OPEN ACCESS

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grip the globe, there is concern for the increased vulnerability of those with chronic disease, including Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Nicholas Steyn, Rachelle N Binny, Kate Hannah, Shaun C Hendy, Alex James, Audrey Lustig, Kannan Ridings, Michael J Plank, Andrew Sporle

Māori and Pacific people in New Zealand have a higher risk of hospitalisation for COVID-19 | OPEN ACCESS

Up to 25 September 2020, New Zealand had reported 1,829 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by a novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China.

Nick Wilson, George Thomson

Deficient handwashing amenities in public toilets in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: a multi-regional survey | OPEN ACCESS

The COVID-19 pandemic has focused international attention on non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce pandemic spread prior to vaccination roll-out.

Nick Wilson, Jennifer A Summers, Leah Grout, Michael G Baker

Bumper issue of COVID-19 pandemic studies of relevance to Aotearoa New Zealand | OPEN ACCESS

This issue of the New Zealand Medical Journal has 14 new pandemic-related articles. Some of this work can help inform vaccination prioritisation decisions and inform preparations of primary and secondary care services and social services for any future raising of levels in the pandemic Alert Level system.

Vol 134 No 1537: 25 June 2021

Improving care, reducing the burden

Wayne Miles

The conclusion from a meta-analysis of studies of the economic burden of schizophrenia was that the enormous burden is suggestive of the inadequate provision of healthcare services to patients with schizophrenia.

David R Murdoch, Sue Crengle, Bob Frame, Nigel P French, Patricia C Priest

“We have been warned”—preparing now to prevent the next pandemic | OPEN ACCESS

‘COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic’ is the aspirational title of the recently released report by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Karen Bartholomew, Beverley Lawton, Susan M Sherman, Collette Bromhead, Jane Grant, Georgina McPherson, Anna Maxwell, Marion Saville, Sue Crengle, Nina Scott

Recommendations for implementing HPV self-testing in Aotearoa

In Budget 2021 published earlier this month, the Government made the welcome and long-awaited announcement that they will invest “up to $53 million to complete the design of and implement a new human papillomavirus (HPV) test” in 2023.

Structural reform or a cultural reform? Moving the health and disability sector to be pro-equity, culturally safe, Tiriti compliant and anti-racist

Papaarangi Reid

Forty years ago, in 1980, Professor Eru Pōmare published the first volume in the series Hauora – Māori Standards of Health.

Vol 134 No 1534: 30 April 2021

Parental use of physical punishment in a birth cohort

Geraldine FH McLeod, John Horwood, Joseph M Boden, Lianne J Woodward

New Zealand has very high rates of child maltreatment compared to other developed countries.

Vol 134 No 1534: 30 April 2021

Challenge for COVID-19 vaccines to protect the New Zealand population | OPEN ACCESS

Stephen T Chambers, Nigel J Raymond

New Zealand faces a major challenge this year to use the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2 virus) vaccination programme to optimise protective immunity, in order protect our largely non-immune population.

Gary N McAuliffe, Timothy K Blackmore

COVID-19 serology: use and interpretation in New Zealand | OPEN ACCESS

Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT), such as reverse transcriptase PCR or transcription- mediated amplification, are the most widely used tests in New Zealand for the diagnosis of acute COVID-19 infections.

Francesc March de Ribot, Anna March de Ribot, Kelechi Ogbuehi, Ruth Large

Teleophthalmology in the post-coronavirus era | OPEN ACCESS

Offering excellent quality care to the population via our public healthcare system is one of our national priorities. To seek consultation from an ophthalmologist, patients usually make an appointment with an optometrist (or a general practitioner (GP)) before being referred.

Matthew J Cowie, Cicely V M Barron, Anna G Bergin, Noella N Farrell, India G Hansen

How were medical students from Christchurch, New Zealand, involved in their COVID-19 response? | OPEN ACCESS

Early in the academic year of 2020, our cohort of medical students at the University of Otago in Christchurch received a lecture on the developing COVID-19 pandemic.

Helen Lockett, Ashley Koning, Cameron Lacey, Susanna Every-Palmer, Kate M Scott, Ruth Cunningham, Tony Dowell, Linda Smith, Alison Masters, Arran Culver, Stephen Chambers

Addressing structural discrimination: prioritising people with mental health and addiction issues during the COVID-19 pandemic | OPEN ACCESS

The recognition of mental health and addiction issues as pre-existing health conditions that place people at higher risk of serious outcomes or illness in the Ministry of Health’s vaccine rollout plan (ie, Group 3) is critical to prevent further physical health inequities for people with mental health and addiction issues.

Vol 134 No 1537: 25 June 2021

Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill: should doctors be concerned?

Guna Kanniah, Shailesh Kumar

Cannabis is the most commonly used illegal drug in New Zealand, even though the unauthorised possession of any amount of cannabis is a crime under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

Participant injury in clinical trials conducted in New Zealand for the benefit of manufacturers: an unfair system?

Mark Bolland

In New Zealand, participants in clinical trials that are deemed as being conducted for the benefit of the manufacturer are not eligible for Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) coverage if they suffer an injury from participating in the trial.

Care planning, diagnosis and management in paediatric functional constipation

Darryl Cochrane

Paediatric functional constipation is a growing medical condition in New Zealand and worldwide, with a reported average prevalence of ~12% (range 0.5% to 32.2%).

Vol 134 No 1537: 25 June 2021

The competition is next door! Why a voluntary approach to tobacco retailer reduction will never work

Richard Portch

In 2011, Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa (The New Zealand Government) set the goal to become smokefree by 2025 and have less than 5% of the population smoking daily.

Cheri Hotu, Sandra Hotu, Dawn Adair, Danny De Lore, Clarence Kerrison, George Laking, Myra Ruka, Kennedy Sarich, Jade Tamatea, Tane Taylor, Matthew Wheeler

Letter on an iceberg | OPEN ACCESS

We write as the Māori Health Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), a collective of Māori physician and paediatrician Fellows and trainees.

Janet Hoek, Ivana Barbalich, Richard Edwards, Coral Gartner

A qualitative analysis of how people who smoke and manage lower incomes perceive the Smokefree 2025 goal

A decade has passed since the then National-led government accepted the Māori Affairs Select Committee (MASC) Inquiry recommendation that New Zealand set a “longer-term goal of reducing smoking prevalence and tobacco availability to minimal levels, thereby [becoming] essentially a smokefree nation by 2025.”

Julie Bennett, Anneka Anderson, Malakai ‘Ofanoa, Philippa Anderson, Michael G Baker, Rachel Brown, Gerry Devlin, Kyle Eggleton, Matire Harwood, Raweri McKree Jansen, Donna Kielar, John Malcolm, Nicole J Moreland, Neil Poskitt, Dianne Sika-Paotonu, Rachel Webb, Nigel Wilson

Acute rheumatic fever—a preventable, inequitable disease: a call for action

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is a preventable autoimmune response to group A Streptococcus (GAS) infection.

Manatu ki waaheke in nursing education: a legend for an example

Sandra McDonald

As described by Selak et al, systemic racism exists in New Zealand healthcare.

It's time to end racism in our profession: an open letter to the New Zealand medical community

Wil Harrison

This is an open letter to all medical professionals in Aotearoa/New Zealand in response to a recently publicised incident at a medical conference held in late 2020, where racist and offensive remarks were made about Māori to an audience of medical professionals and an invited Māori delegate.

Vol 134 No 1534: 30 April 2021

Letter to the editor: response to Katherine Rich

Jennie Connor‍

The purpose of my recent editorial was to inform New Zealand Medical Journal readers about the conclusion of the recent Whale Oil defamation case and its connection to some broader issues for the health of New Zealanders.

Vol 134 No 1532: 26 March 2021

Perfection: The life and times of Sir William Manchester

Saxon Connor

I recently spent a weekend in Martinborough and as many people do spent some time browsing the local bookshop.

Vol 133 No 1572: 18 December 2020

From Southland to Surgery: A Journey around Values

Richard Acland

Professor John Morton has not only written an intriguing catalogue of the Christchurch surgical scene in the latter part of the 20th century, but has also provided a well-considered philosophy for medical care.

Vol 133 No 1521: 4 September 2020

My Life in Public Health

In the time of Covid, some of the superheroes of the health sector are the public health physicians. This book outlines the active and varied personal and professional life of one New Zealand public health physician.

Vol 132 No 1489: 1 February 2019

Mind That Child; A Medical Memoir

This a book that recounts the experience of the Auckland Starship’s paediatrician Dr Simon Rowley over his professional lifetime.

Vol 132 No 1488: 18 January 2019

Fat Off; the Right Way A clever and sustainable eating guide for weight loss and healthy living

Paul Anderson is a New Zealander who trained in general surgery and works part-time in Australia and part-time in New Zealand.

Vol 132 No 1488: 18 January 2019

The Art of Recovery: six personal journeys

As an editor you receive books for review, which are sent to suitable people following an email agreement to review.

Vol 131 No 1477: 22 June 2018

The Older Traveller: A guide for the health professional