Kia ora and welcome to Te Kotahi Oranga Health and Wellness Centre.
We are a new ākonga (learner), student-assisted clinic with a focus on interprofessional care. The clinic was founded through strong collaboration with community partnerships and extensive research.
This opportunity plays a vital role in developing the next generation of health professionals. Our one-stop clinic provides the community with accessible healthcare while giving ākonga an authentic educational experience in a real-life setting.
Ākonga from various health and sport disciplines come together to gain experience from experienced kaimahi (staff) and provide accessible, high-quality and evidence-based healthcare to our in-need communities. You and your whānau will benefit from our ability to attend to multiple aspects of your health in one place.
Our services are free and cover a range of treatments, education topics and programmes.
The education topics below are included, along with exercise activities. These will be delivered by our ākonga as they expand their experience and skills within their educational programme. We will also invite guest speakers from time to time.
The goal is to prevent and manage T2DM, increase understanding of the disease and support weight loss
The goal is to support better breathing and provide education specific to asthma/COPD
We are open to the public for appointments, and you do not need to be referred to us by a health professional.
Making an appointment is easy. Click the Referral Form button to fill out our referral form. Once you have filled in the form, we assess your needs using the steps below and will contact you to arrange an appointment.
We welcome you to refer your client to us who would benefit from additional support within our focus areas.
All clinical decision-making will remain the responsibility of the primary care provider while we provide supportive care for those who may require additional time and support.
Once we have received your referral, we will contact you to make an appointment.
At your first appointment, you will have an initial assessment with an ākonga and supervisor. This is a comprehensive, complete health assessment process using formally validated assessment tools. After your first appointment, our teams meet for interprofessional discussions that determine your care plan. You can view our Initial Assessment Form here.
Ongoing assessments will continue and you will receive information for your follow-up appointments.
Our interprofessional team meet daily for case management, which involves discussing individual plans and progress, assessing any issues that have arisen, and providing adjustments, additions and ongoing care to improve health outcomes.
Pre-exercise screening is ongoing throughout your time with us to assess your ability and help determine types of exercise plans and stages.
Following on from our appointments, we ensure you have the tools you need to continue your care plan for six weeks. After this time, we will make contact and invite you to an evaluation appointment, which is approximately 12 weeks after your first appointment with us.
We will phone you for regular check-ins and screening to see if further support would be beneficial, such as further inclusion in exercise classes and programmes.
Find answers to commonly asked questions below. If you have an unanswered question, please contact us here.
All care plans developed by ākonga are signed off by our registered health professionals with feedback back to the referring and primary care provider.
Before anyone is offered an individual or group exercise class, general practitioner sign-off will also be sought.
As part of our clinic procedures, the referrer and general practitioner will be informed after the initial assessment and establishment of the care plan. For the general practitioner, this will be sent securely through HealthLink from our Practice Management System (PMS) to yours. If we have requests that need to be actioned by the general practitioner, we may need to call their practice and follow up with a letter too. Communication with the referrer will depend on who the referrer is; client confidentiality and privacy will always be most important.
In addition, one of the greatest things we can offer that many others cannot is time. Our ākonga are learning so they are given the time that they need with clients. This also allows us to provide a robust screening service to ascertain holistic needs that many others simply can not fit into their busy schedules.
A ground-breaking, community health education model will launch at Wintec in Kirikiriroa Hamilton from 2022, where ākonga/learners studying health and sport-related disciplines will learn in supervised working clinics.
Our mission is to provide accessible interprofessional primary healthcare services focusing on the needs of the under-resourced community through the investment in the learning and holistic development of ākonga studying the health disciplines.
Te Kotahi Oranga was created from conversations between the directors of our Centre for Health and Social Practice and Centre for Sport Science and Human Performance around how ākonga (learners/students) from the many health, sport, and social practice programmes available here could better work together to help address local community health needs. In 2020, a core project team was established to explore the potential of a student-led health service.
The project team found that a student-led clinic could provide valuable educational learning experiences for ākonga while improving health outcomes in our community. Detailed findings have been published in a full report, He Kaupapa Oranga Tahi: Working in partnership to grow the health workforce through tauira-assisted health services.
After quickly gaining support, in 2021 the project received the Community Impact Grant from Trust Waikato to establish the service.
It was clear from the beginning that the clinic should target areas of clear community need. Our feasibility work included looking at Ministry of Health and ACC data and discussing needs with members of organisations working in our community every day. This has guided our areas of focus.
Our clinic is supported by a rigorous research agenda. You can find our publications here:
We are located at Rotokauri Campus, 51 Akoranga Road, Hamilton.
Our temporary location is in Ecohouse 6 in the Rotokauri Eco Village (pictured).
View the map below or download the map here.
Wintec is part of Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology Learn More
Learn with purpose
