Rural health services across Aotearoa New Zealand grapple with geographic isolation, workforce shortages, limited-service scope, and fragmented care pathways. The result is often inequitable outcomes for rural populations, who are older, have more chronic conditions, and face longer wait times than their urban counterparts. To counter these challenges, integrated health centres are increasingly recognised as a transformative solution. Akaroa Health, situated in a remote yet resilient community on Banks Peninsula, demonstrates how integration can work in practice. Bringing together general practice, urgent care, aged residential care, and community nursing under one roof, Akaroa Health represents a model of holistic, sustainable rural healthcare.

Te Pou Whirinaki o te Mate Huka, in partnership with Ngaa Miro Community Health Centre, has officially launched a new online resource to support Māori whānau living with Type 2 Diabetes. This HRC-funded project has been a deeply collaborative journey with the Ngāruawāhia community, weaving together clinical knowledge, lived experience, and mātauranga Māori.

The title of Dr Pauline Dawson’s study says it all – “How can I help?” Pauline, a registered midwife and a Senior Lecturer in the Dunedin School of Medicine, is running a monthly pop-up maternity clinic at the Tokanui Health Centre in the Southern Catlins and she and her team plan to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of these types of clinics in remote southern areas.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition predominantly managed through primary care in Aotearoa New Zealand. Primary care initiatives are being increasingly established to provide culturally safe and interprofessional care to optimise disease management. Aim This study aimed to qualitatively explore the ‘Piki te Ora’ (Ascending to Wellness) interprofessional primary care service of Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki (a Māori general practice network) for supporting whānau (family) with type 2 diabetes.

Find here for HTRHN Rural Research Scholarship recipient Eamon Walsh's research, published in the "Journal of Clinical Neuroscience" Background: Spinal epidural abscess are difficult to diagnose due to its non-specific clinical presentation. Spinal epidural abscess is identified late or missed in almost half of patients. To better assist clinicians in making this diagnosis there needs to be a better appreciation of at risk patient profile.

Find here for HTRHN Rural Research Scholarship recipient Anna Donaldson's research. Higher amenable mortality and lower rates of healthcare utilisation have recently been identified for Aotearoa New Zealand’s (NZ’s) rural and rural Māori populations. These findings rely upon clinical information coded within routinely collected administrative datasets.