From Kate Jerram at ACC

Kia ora korua

Please find attached a recent update on the Primary Care Concussion Pilot. You are welcome to share this as per the wording provided or refer your members to the provider news weblink. Provider news (acc.co.nz). This information will be available on ACC provider news from Monday afternoon.

The Pilot is trialling a client pathway to empower GPs to manage mild concussions in the primary care setting. We’ve been testing the use of consistent education, a Brain Injury Screening Tool (BIST), and follow-up consultations to track client progress, and the outcomes this has for our clients.

The Pilot is currently being trialled by three Primary Health Organisations (PHOs): WellSouth (Otago/Southland), Pegasus (Canterbury), and ProCare (Auckland/Northland).

As part of the pathway clients are eligible for an initial GP appointment and two fully-funded follow-ups, with a BIST assessment completed at each appointment.

We’re expanding the Primary Care Concussion Pilot to enable physiotherapists to deliver the follow-up appointments and complete the second and third BIST assessments. This means:

• Participating PHOs (named above) will subcontract a limited number of physiotherapy practices, who will then be able to deliver the follow-up appointments in the pathway
• If GPs refer a concussion client, the subcontracted physiotherapist will be required to complete the BIST assessment at the appointment and send it to ACC and the referring PHO for reporting, as well as the GP
• Physiotherapists will need to have an agreement in place with their local PHO and complete the education requirements for the pathway
• PHOs will be responsible for paying physiotherapists for the BIST assessments.

As this is a pilot, we are asking participating PHOs to cap physiotherapy involvement to a limited number of practises to ensure ACC can deliver the necessary support. If successful, this could be expanded at a later date.

Enabling physiotherapists to perform follow-up appointments within this Pilot will help us understand how it improves access for clients to be seen in primary care. Benefits may also include reduced pressure on General Practice and reduced client wait times for treatment, while maintaining patient safety by ensuring GPs have visibility of client progress.  

If your members have questions, we encourage them to talk to their participating PHO:

WellSouth (Canterbury/Southland) – concussion@wellsouth.org.nz

Pegasus (Canterbury) – concussion@pegasus.org.nz

ProCare – concussion@procare.co.nz 

Kia pai te pō

Kate