Kia hauora te katoa, kia puaawai te katoa - Everyone healthy, everyone thriving.

Our vision is to deliver primary care that supports all people to thrive by realising their health and wellbeing potential.

Mihi whakatau - Who we are

The Pinnacle group is a primary care pioneer – and we’re proud of that. We’re inquisitive, innovative and evolve with purpose – we’re proud to be constantly pushing the boundaries. We know a strong health system centres around high quality primary care and community services that are continually developing and evolving to meet local need. We play our part by ensuring the right resources and capacity are in place so our patients and our network can thrive.

Our group of not-for-profit primary care focused organisations manages the healthcare of nearly half a million people enrolled with 84 practices in Tairāwhiti, Taranaki, Rotorua, Taupō-Tūrangi, Thames-Coromandel and Waikato.

Midlands Regional Health Network Charitable Trust is our primary health organisation (PHO). It governs the execution of PHO functions through the management arm, Pinnacle Midlands Health Network.
Pinnacle Midlands Health Network is the operational arm or ‘engine room’ for the group, delivering PHO functions and supporting the day-to-day activity taking place in general practice and wider community settings. MHN also directly provides health services in the community to ensure people have their primary health care needs met.
Pinnacle Incorporated is a 31-year-old GP membership organisation, and the parent company for Pinnacle Ventures.
Pinnacle Ventures is the owner of the Primary Health Care Limited group of general practices. Ventures also focuses on technology such as patient management systems, patient portals, electronic clinical decision support, electronic pathways and shared electronic health records. Finally, Ventures operates the Patient Access Centre, a virtual reception team that allows frontline practice staff to focus on people instead of phone calls.

Takohanga - Our responsibility

Ehara i te mea, he kotahi tangata nāna i whakaara te pō. 
It is not for one person but for everyone to take responsibility.

We are working towards being a bi-cultural organisation.

We have made an explicit commitment to Māori and our communities to improve equity of health and wellbeing, in accordance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We have also made an equity commitment to our Pasifika population.

The individual and whānau experience is of fundamental importance. People in our communities have different levels of privilege and therefore different levels of ability to access the health care they need. We recognise different approaches are needed to ensure equitable health outcomes for all.

We are powerful advocates for primary care services that support people and communities to thrive. We recognise the role of general practice as a hub and shelter within the community – a place to seek help, receive ongoing care from a team that knows you, to take action and to live well.

We can't do this alone. We are committed to new ways of working, new partnerships, collaboration, integration and to walking alongside others for the collective good.

Pakiaka - Our roots

• Whakawhanaungatanga - Connection: Developing understanding through relationships.
• Akoranga - Learning: Taking an evidence-based approach to everything we do.
• Mahi tahi - Collaboration and partnership: Working together to achieve our goals.
• Kawa whakaruruhau - Cultural responsiveness: Respecting the unique value and perspective people bring.
• Kaitiakitanga - Stewardship: Caring for and protecting our resources.
• Hauora - Health and wellbeing: Supporting our people to lead healthy lives.

From then till now...

All the best Kiwi tales start with a road trip right?

Well ours started in 1989, with a brown Ford Cortina and a couple of GPs travelling around the Waikato bringing together their like-minded colleagues. What united them then, and now, was the desire to deliver the best health outcomes for people and communities. 

We've always had an eye to the future – sensing and positioning for the ever-changing health landscape of New Zealand. Our group structure ensures each entity has a crystal-clear purpose, together providing premium support to health care providers for their day to day activities while also directly delivering a range of primary care services.  

In 2010 the Midlands Regional Health Network Charitable Trust Board was established. The Trust is the primary health organisation within the group. It works across Te Manawa Taki (Midlands) region to develop a more connected system for better health outcomes across primary, community and secondary health care.

The key founding partners of the Trust include:

• Pinnacle Incorporated
• Te Hauora o Turanganui a Kiwa - a Māori primary care health provider for four Iwi entities of Turanga, based in Gisborne
• Ngā kōrero a Tui Ora - the largest community-based health and social services provider in Taranaki.

The key strategic initiatives of the Trust are:

• leveraging the power of our regional collective talent, knowledge, economies, capability, and influence on the national system
• high quality services and actions
• striving for superior health outcomes for the people of Te Manawa Taki, particularly those most marginalised or vulnerable
• high performance from the health providers we work with
• positively impacting on national health targets
• continued success of our individual organisations/members
• supporting community-based intervention, while contributing to the evidence around the benefits of services delivered closer to home.

Māori and Pasifika health

Working in partnership with iwi and Māori and Pasifika health providers is critical to improve health equity in our enrolled population.

With approximately a 20 per cent Māori patient population, the Pinnacle group is committed to becoming a bi-cultural organisation. This includes ensuring all elements of our work programmes are developed in accordance with the Te Tiriti o Waitangi and in partnership with Māori and local iwi.

We have Māori leadership at all levels of our organisation; from the Pinnacle Incorporated and Trust Boards through to our workforce out in local communities.

We work closely with those communities, breaking out of the traditional model of general practice and delivering services when, where and how they work for Māori. We already provide a range of outreach services such as marae clinics, kaiāwhina, whānau coordinators, services designed specifically for kaumatua, and we're constantly on the lookout for new partnerships, ideas and opportunities. We're also actively increasing our Māori workforce in order to foster kawa whakaruruhau in all that we do.

Rural health care

Pinnacle has the largest rural primary care network nationally, making rural health and rural communities central to our work.

People living in rural communities should experience the same sort of health outcomes as those living in the city. It’s important to ensure even in remote communities that people have appropriate access to first level and urgent care services. Our work helps to support practices and their enrolled population by ensuring rural primary health care services:

• are sustainable
• reflect local community needs
• are delivered by the right people, at the right time, and in the right place
• prevent unnecessary hospital travel
• have safe workloads
• can access appropriate clinical support and workforce development opportunities.

Supporting primary care providers

Through our network we support over 1,000 primary care clinicians and administrative staff to provide the best care every day.

As one of the largest primary health care providers in New Zealand we have a strong national voice, influencing health policy and service development. Our size and innovative culture allows us to create or access the very latest thinking, techniques and equipment.

We have a recognised history of changing the way health care services are delivered – it is at the heart of who we are and what we do. Developing the next generation of leaders and a sustainable workforce is core business, and our innovation and service development has their input and needs at the centre.

Pinnacle support to our network practices ranges from daily administration support and financial planning, right through to assistance with adopting new technologies and models of care, long-term practice and succession planning, funding for facility development and free counselling support. Every practice has a dedicated development facilitator who regularly visits the practice and is on call as needed.

Our key enablers:

• culture of partnership with iwi and Māori providers, NGOs, the education sector and ACC
• continuous quality improvement including practice and locality planning, peer groups for sharing learning, practice accreditation and quality programmes
• proactive and coordinated primary care through a continual design, test and develop process
• workforce planning and redesign, ensuring sustainability of service provision and supporting the development of diverse clinical and non-clinical roles to meet local needs
• data and informatics transforming how we access and use data to design, plan and deliver better care
• modern IT infrastructure and digital technologies, including specialist telehealth services and virtual care
• providing options for general practice ownership – exit and buy in. 

PHO service provision

As a primary health organisation (PHO), we are a provider of services that integrate with general practices and other health and social care providers.

Most of our programmes and services are delivered by your general practice – this is your first point of call for all health concerns.

To support the primary care delivered by our general practice network, Pinnacle MHN also directly delivers services in the community. Your GP or practice nurse will refer you to any services you are eligible for or may benefit from. Services delivered directly by Pinnacle MHN are described in our information for patients section so you can get to know a little more.