Healthcare for our community
We are a Cornerstone accredited integrated family health centre caring for an enrolled population of 17,000 patients, providing a wide range of services, including acute services, minor operations and nurse-led clinics.
UHHC is part of the Health Care Home programme in association with the Te Awakairangi Health Network. The Health Care Home is a model of healthcare that supports general practice to be the health care hub and care co-ordinator for its enrolled patients, acting as a system integrator with the patient at the centre.
About us
Upper Hutt Health Centre is a large integrated family health centre which was established in the 1970s. It has a strong track record of innovation and early adoption of new models of care and technology for improvement of patient outcomes.
The centre was established as a multidisciplinary facility for the Upper Hutt community and this vision has been maintained and strengthened over the years with a team of GPs and a range of health professionals working on site in a collaborative way. This includes: physiotherapy, audiology, radiology, podiatry, pharmacy and DHB district nurses. There are also a number of other visiting specialist services.
Upper Hutt Health Centre was one of the earliest practices in the country to adopt computerisation and a capitation based funding model in the 1980s. The practice was a pioneer in developing a new model for practice nurses in the 1990s where they ran independent clinics and were encouraged to develop specialty portfolios and work at top of scope. As a result the Upper Hutt Health Centre has implemented a number of nurse led initiatives over the years e.g. nurse led diabetes clinic where nurses started managing insulin in 2004 and a respiratory nurse led treatment project was undertaken in 2010.
Other initiatives include the introduction of a Skin Clinic in 2010 which offers a comprehensive range of services covering full skin examination and treatments and a Travel Clinic.
Upper Hutt Health Centre is a Cornerstone teaching practice, training GP registrars, medical students and student nurses based on existing relationships with local Universities. We also hold Q-Audit Accreditation for office based practice which is rare for primary care.
Upper Hutt Health Centre has a strong record of innovation and collaboration with a great in house infrastructure and culture for adoption of new ideas and change management. Our people and our culture are our core asset. We support our people to feel impassioned, engaged and aligned to our service.
Our commitment to you is to support you to be well and live longer.
We are a Practice Aiming for Excellence
Aiming for Excellence is the quality standard for general practice in New Zealand.
Aiming for Excellence sets out advanced and aspirational criteria for practices to achieve over and above the requirements of Foundation Standard.
Quality is an improvement journey and Aiming for Excellence accommodates practices as they progress along this pathway. Aiming for Excellence incorporates the Foundation Standard criteria and the advanced and aspirational criteria that are part of CORNERSTONE® which is the College’s practice accreditation programme.
What is CORNERSTONE®?
CORNERSTONE® is the assessment programme that assesses practices using the Aiming for Excellence standard. This programme is coordinated by the practice assessment team at the College.
Upper Hutt Health Centre has successfully completed the CORNERSTONE® accreditation programme. This process is like continuing professional development (CPD), where certain criteria must be met every year during a four-year cycle to maintain professional standards.