GPs interested in joining us

CareHQ is a rapidly growing team comprising over 60 GP Fellows, 3 registered nurses, and an extended practice support team. Our ethos is to make CareHQ the best place for clinicians to work, and the highest quality telemedical service for patients and their whānau. We support local practices by bridging unmet need without enrolling or charging GMS clawbacks. We are New Zealand’s first and only practice-friendly telemedical provider to exclusively employ GP Fellows, which is a testament to the high clinical standards and attention to patient safety that we strive for.

CareHQ is open from 7:00am to 9:00pm, Monday to Sunday, 365 days a year.

Once onboarded, you can request a regular shift or select available ad-hoc shifts through our dedicated roster website or app. We expect our GPs to regularly work at least 8-10 hours per week.

You will be paid fortnightly with your timesheets viewable via our roster website and app. Shifts are finalised two weeks in advance.

The CareHQ practice team will help rearrange your patients in case of sickness or urgent reasons.

You can work from anywhere, including overseas. However, please inform us at least one month in advance to ensure that you are prepared and have read through our overseas working policy. This policy provides guidance to help you with security, privacy, and compliance requirements for your safe practice.

CareHQ uses Indici Lite, which is similar to the Indici practice management software (PMS) used in practices nationwide. We provide clinicians with comprehensive training, including how-to manuals and videos. We also have a test environment, to learn the ropes before you go live.

To start, send us an expression of interest along with your CV. Our practice manager will get back to you, and it sounds like the right fit for you, we will book an interview with our Clinical Director. Should you progress with our enrolment process, you can book a training session, a test run, and then go on to book your first shift. Contact admin@carehq.co.nz

CareHQ has a dedicated team to manage your patients’ results and referrals. Our team of clinical leads are experienced GP Fellows, who file and act on all results. By following our task hand over process, our team of nurses will also chase your patients’ overdue tests, referrals, and high-risk presentations. This ensures that you complete your shifts with the reassurance and peace of mind that your patients will be well cared for. Our inbox and task management polices are evidence-based and follow best practice guidance from the HDC, the MCNZ, and the RNZCGP’s Cornerstone Standards.

Regardless of whether a result is normal or abnormal, all results are communicated back to patients via email, with an interpretation and a personalised plan (where needed). If a result needs to be communicated with urgency, we will contact the patient and/or relevant providers by phone. While we aim to reduce the workload of enrolled GPs, where a result or report is highly relevant to their patient’s care, we forward relevant results, reports, and interventions to our practice colleagues. This keeps them in the loop and helps preserves continuity of care.

Tasks for follow-up care can be sent to the nursing team on our PMS. Our clinical leadership team are available to call for urgent queries, concerns or questions.

CareHQ GPs and nurses can order appropriate investigations, which are indicated by the patient's presentation and are relevant to their management. As part of your training, you will be guided by our clinical leads on what investigation choices are best suited for the episodic online modality.

Prescribing is at the discretion of our experienced clinicians and subject to MCNZ guidelines and CareHQ’s prescribing policies. These are written with best practice standards in mind, are evidence-based, and allow our GPs to extend high quality care while keeping our patients safe. Limitations to the duration and the type of prescribed medications apply when delivering telemedical care. Medication histories are reconciled against the Ministry of Health ePS database, alongside other shared notes repositories such as Testsafe, YourHealthsummary, HealthOne and Indici SEHRs.

CareHQ has access to public referral channels nationwide and provides access credentials for all regional HealthPathways for our clinicians. This allows you to navigate your patients to the best source of care. For private referrals we use the Southern Cross Healthcare Finder to help you navigate your patient to their nearest provider. Where patients have access to their enrolled GP service it is often more appropriate for their GP to complete a referral. In these cases, we may signpost patients to their team to preserve continuity of care.

Most CareHQ patients are great at self-triaging. Where patients arrive via an in-person provider such as a practice, NGO, or employer who we support, they also tend to be signposted to our service appropriately. All users see a triage screen before accessing our booking page, this signposts them to 111 for emergencies. This means that the vast majority of presentations managed via CareHQ are done so without the need for an in-person review. For patients requiring in-person review, our clinicians are trained to signpost them to the most suitable in-person services for them. For unenrolled patients, our nurses will use Healthpoint to help find a local service to meet their ongoing needs, Where it is necessary, for example in high needs cases, we engage directly with PHOs to link patients with practices. Our goal at CareHQ is to safely bridge episodic care needs, while signposting patients back to their enrolled GP team to preserve both their practice relationship and continuity of care.

Our clinical team is available for help or advice to support you. We have active chat groups, online peer groups, an online GP handbook, and arrange regular in-person socials to keep in touch and to celebrate milestones.

CareHQ offers peer groups, CME, and MDT meetings throughout the year. If you would like to perform an audit for your annual CPD requirements, then please get in touch with our clinical leadership team and we’d be happy to help.