Child Health

We try to be a child-friendly practice but also one where children are expected to show respect for other people and property. If a child wishes to damage property or prevents a consultation from being effective, we may insist they leave the consulting room and be supervised by my staff.

Services include:

• Six week baby check and vaccination of my patients -including when pregnancy care has been delivered by an Independent Midwife. [FREE]

• Routine Vaccinations -Those vaccinations on the Immunisation Schedule are FREE, other vaccinations/immunizations are available such as Hepatitis A, Chicken Pox (Varicella), but are not funded. You should discuss the place of these with our Practice Nurse.

• Routine Health Checks -These are FREE, but require significant input from the Practice Nurse, so please make sure you inform the receptionist that the appointment is for this. This is a health screen and not intended to deal with specific problems which if present may need more time, and will NOT BE FREE. It is better to make a separate appointment for those problems.
  The eight Well Child - Tamariki Ora National Schedule checks [*=vaccinations also given] are scheduled at 6 weeks*, 3 months*, 5 months, 8-10 months, 15 months*, 21-24 months, 3 years and pre-school*.

• Nurse Asthma Check -FREE but the doctor will need to see the child for on-going medication.

• Short (5-10min), single problem consultations - the funding provided for the "Free under-six" political promise only covers a brief consultation, so only these remain FREE BUT...

• Significant (15 min), complicated or multiple problem consultations -will NOT BE FREE. The funding for all "free" services has been unrealistic and despite a small recent increase remains $10 short of an average adult fee. A $10 "shortfall" co-payment therefore applies. See "Fees"

• Medicals for Outward Bound, Boarding School etc -please note: this service cannot be performed in a 10-15 minute standard consultation and will require significant input from the Practice Nurse. It is also vital to bring the documentation/forms etc for the medical.

• Parent Resources -we have available a FREE "library" of very practical New Zealand based books on topics such as training Good Behaviour, achieving good Sleep patterns and Toilet Training. We have a supply of "Wet Stop" alarms for bed wetting (we lend the alarm but charge for the consumable bits). Talk to the Practice Nurse about other needs.