Patients across the Waikato region will soon have better access to skin lesion checks and removal procedures thanks to an important regional funder.
DV Bryant Trust, a long-term Waikato family philanthropic trust, is now supporting Braemar Charitable Trust which works to improve health outcomes across the region and is the 100% owner of Braemar Hospital, one of New Zealand’s largest private hospitals.
Braemar Charitable Trust has a range of charitable activities it funds, including free community surgeries, scholarships, health sector capability building and medical research, all underpinned by an equity and access lens. It delivers dozens of free surgeries each year with the help of surgeons and anaesthetists who are credentialed to work at Braemar Hospital and who donate their time. The Trust then pays for additional costs such as nursing and consumables, which Braemar Hospital provides at cost. Surgery recipients are referred by GPs, dentists and community health providers.
Braemar Charitable Trust Manager Paula Baker meets regularly with primary health providers and community groups in the region and from their feedback, skin lesion checking and removal was identified as a significant area of unmet need. Some GPs can manage this in-house but have limited funding, and in some cases expertise, and patients requiring specialist referral are often declined or end up on longer-than-desirable public waiting lists.
DV Bryant Trust is funding $25,000 a year over three years to help Braemar Charitable Trust with a range of community outreach programmes - the skin lesion initiative in the region, being one of these. Other initiatives include dental assistance for recent refugees who have settled in Hamilton as part of New Zealand’s resettlement programme, the upskilling of Te Kohao Health GPs on minor general surgical procedures and an integrated community cardio health initiative in partnership with Te Toi Ora ki Whaingaroa.
The goal of the skin lesion initiative is to provide an opportunity to upskill GPs so that more skin lesion checking and lesion removal can be provided at a primary health level, reducing the number of people referred to the public system.
Funding, combined with a generous donation from existing Friends of Braemar the Glenice and John Gallagher Foundation, will be put towards this initiative. In addition to GP training, it will include free skin lesion checking and removal clinics, as well as a small fund GPs can apply to for funding additional skin-lesion removal procedures in their practices.
Training will be organised soon and will include an opportunity for GPs to work alongside plastic surgeon Winston McEwen so they can develop the basic, intermediate and advanced skills and confidence to remove skin lesions, and with the assistance of the National Hauora Coalition, will be available to GPs from across the Waikato region.
In the meantime, Mr McEwan, a well-known plastic surgeon who is credentialed to work at Braemar Hospital, is working with Braemar Charitable Trust through its Community Surgery Programme to assess and provide more complex skin removal procedures at his Alison St surgery - an example of how Braemar Charitable Trust seeks to provide procedures at different locations within the community, Ms Baker says.
The Trust was a key provider at the recent Tokoroa Hauora Day and with support from GP Dr Johnathon Armstrong from the National Hauroa Coalition, provided skin checks and lesion removals for 28 people on the day with two patients requiring specialist referral.
“We do a huge amount of work with front-line providers who are aligned with our drive to improve health outcomes in our community,” Ms Baker says. “We are very thankful for the support of key funders and the very many surgeons and anaesthetists who help us both at Braemar Hospital for free surgeries, in their own practices or rooms and who are willing to share their skills and expertise, to enable the professional development of other clinicians.”
She says it’s heartening to see that highly regarded organisations such as DV Bryant Trust can see the short and long term impact and financially support the work. “We really appreciate the support of the DV Bryant Trust to enable capability building for GPs and the delivery of more minor procedures in community based settings. This should help reduce the demand for specialist referral and hopefully lead to shorter patient wait times and overall pressure on the public system.”
Ms Baker says upskilling will mean many more GPs in the region can provide skin-lesion procedures within their own practices. GP practices already receive some funding from Health New Zealand to tackle these, but the funding is quickly depleted. “Following their training, we will have a small fund that GPs can apply to, to help deliver necessary skin surgeries for their patients. For complex cases GPs can refer their patient for potential assistance under the Braemar Charitable Trust Community Surgery Programme.”
DV Bryant Trust General Manager Raewyn Kirkman says the organisation is impressed with Braemar’s work, and is keen to fund the forward-thinking plan for upskilling GPs. This will help improve access and enable more equitable health outcomes for those who face barriers and will lessen the load on the public health system.
DV Bryant Trust is a long-term philanthropic funder in the region focused on everyone living a healthy and well life, feeling safe, included and valued for who they are, and having genuine choice in and control over their lives. It directs its funding towards community groups in the Waikato region working with vulnerable or disadvantaged people, and those facing significant hardship, for whom this vision is not a reality. It also operates the Bryant Retreat for Women in Raglan.
“Our mahi and our grant-making is aimed at addressing inequity in the Waikato region. In that, we are closely aligned with Braemar Charitable Trust’s drive and direction in this space and therefore very happy to support Braemar in its work.”
The DV Bryant Trust funding will be combined with other funding from the Glenice and John Gallagher Foundation, another strong supporter of Braemar Charitable Trust.
Braemar Charitable Trust has also made it simple for anyone to donate to its work via a new online donations portal where donors can choose to fund a specific procedure (including minor plastics surgeries for skin lesions) or make donations towards a general fund, scholarship or research. To find out more, visit braemartrust.co.nz and sign up here for news and updates
Find out more about DV Bryant Trust and its work here
