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Banking News – ASB predicts economic flatlining ahead of 2024 rebound

Source: ASB

  • The New Zealand economy is expected to be flat until early 2024
  • RBNZ predicted to hold the OCR until the second half of 2024 before making cuts
  • Net immigration is up and providing a boost to the labour market
  • Inflation expected to remain above 5% for the rest of 2023

The latest ASB Economic Forecast points to continued tough times for New Zealanders in the year ahead with high inflation and interest rates expected to keep the pressure on. Despite this there are early indications some things may be nearing a turning point.

ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley says after officially hitting a recession earlier this year, the New Zealand economy will likely dip in and out of contraction for the rest of 2023 before momentum picks up next year.

“We are seeing some bright spots, particularly in the housing market. It looks like that market is stabilising and we expect prices will start creeping back up in the coming year. So the first part of the economy to get hit hard by rising interest rates also looks like it’s the first to find a base and recover.

“The Reserve Bank will be keeping an eye on this, and all indications point to headline inflation dropping and wage growth having peaked, however it is still early days so they will be being cautious. Overall things are going in the right direction but it’s a slow journey.”

Inflation fell slightly in June to 6%, the lowest since 2021, but is still expected to remain at or above 5% this year before falling to around 3% in the second half of next year, according to the report.

“Interest rates look like they’re on hold for now but it’s going to be a slow grind down for inflation going forward,” says Mr Tuffley.

“The Reserve Bank will want to be sure that inflation will get back below 3% in the second half of 2024 but getting that confidence will take time, and high interest rates will be needed for a while yet to ensure inflation does indeed fall.  We expect the Reserve Bank will wait until around August next year before cutting the OCR.”

Meanwhile, the global economic outlook is subdued, resulting in lower commodity prices and less demand for New Zealand’s key primary exports. A weaker than expected post-COVID lockdown rebound in China is also having an impact, says Mr Tuffley.

“Generally, food commodity prices have been softening. Part of that has been driven by slow global growth this year and the other thing from a New Zealand perspective is that China isn’t rebounding as much as expected. They’re missing in action when it comes to dairy auctions as well which is pushing down dairy prices. So, from a farming point of view, there are a lot of challenges – weather, cost and global demand in particular.

“We’re in for a much softer season than we have just had, and the overall outcome of this year’s extreme weather events is still not clear.”

Employment growth has remained strong over the past few years and a surge in immigration this year will further support the country’s labour market, with the Economic Forecast predicting net immigration inflows of about 70,000 this year.

“There has been an uptick in the number of New Zealanders moving overseas but this has been more than balanced out by a massive rise in those arriving in the country, with the new arrivals younger than leavers and likely to be adding strongly to the workforce.

“This is really helping to fill skill shortages, and because employers have choice, we’re seeing early signs that wage growth is peaking and coming down. It’s positive that despite the economy being in recession, the job market is holding up really well,” says Mr Tuffley.

“It is going to be a slow recovery for the economy overall but we are definitely seeing some signs that things are turning.”

The latest ASB Quarterly Economic Forecast will be available online at https://www.asb.co.nz/documents/economic-research/quarterly-economic-forecasts.html

Other recent ASB reports covering a range of commentary can be accessed at our ASB Economic Insights page: https://www.asb.co.nz/documents/economic-insights.html

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Health News – Te Whatu Ora’s workforce data mystifies doctors

Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists

Senior doctors are mystified by many of the figures Te Whatu Ora is issuing in response to yesterday’s vote to strike, says ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton. “Their figures about average earnings of a senior doctor, pay increases they claim to be offering and number of new senior doctors they have recruited are hard to fathom, news to us and have not been discussed during bargaining.”
In Mid 2022 ASMS requested data from each Te Whatu Ora district about the average specialist salary they paid. Figures then ranged from $219, 992 to $235,337. (Note: three districts- Bay of Plenty, MidCentral and Capital and Coast – did not respond).
The current collective agreement for specialist doctors and dentists includes 15 salary steps starting on $170,369 and peaking at $250,560.
“If doctors are being paid more it is because they are doing extra duties. Some of that is people being paid to cover the work of missing doctors.
“We are bargaining over increases to the base salary steps for senior doctors and our claims range from $13,786 to $17,417 on each step. Te Whatu Ora have not offered $26,000 on any base rate.
“Our claim simply seeks a CPI adjustment this year. Te Whatu Ora continue to offer real pay cuts in the face of ongoing medical workforce shortages.
“We would welcome specific information about SMO recruitment, as many services are critically understaffed. One ED has 90 medical roster gaps in the next three months. Several mental health services have 60% vacancies and no applicants in sight.
“It’s time Te Whatu Ora lifted the lid on its workforce data.”
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Save the Children – Nearly 500 children die from hunger in Sudan as fighting halts life-saving treatment programmes

Source: Save the Children

At least 498 children in Sudan and likely hundreds more have died from hunger, including two dozen babies in a state orphanage, as critical services run out of food or close, said Save the Children.
Since the violence broke out in April, Save the Children has been forced to close 57 of its nutrition facilities, with 31,000 children missing out on treatment for malnutrition and related illnesses across the country. In the 108 facilities the agency still operates, therapeutic food stocks are running critically low, with buffer stock, or emergency supplies, now being used in the most extreme cases.
In Gedaref state in eastern Sudan, at least 132 children died from malnutrition between April and July, with 36% of all cases of children admitted to one state hospital with the condition dying from it or related illnesses. The hospital has also reported a significant increase in cases of malnutrition, with children recently displaced from Khartoum and living in squalid camps particularly affected.
In Khartoum, at least 50 children, including at least two dozen babies, died of starvation or related illnesses in a state orphanage after fighting prevented staff from accessing the building to care for them.
Even before the conflict started, funding shortages had led to Sudan nearly exhausting its supplies of high-calorie and micronutrient rich peanut pastes, essential for treating malnutrition, including the “Plumpy’Nut” and “Plumpy’Sup” pastes.
In May Sudan’s only factory for manufacturing “Plumpy’Nut” was burned to the ground. The factory, which supplied aid agencies like Save the Children and the World Food Program (WFP), had been producing around 10,000 tons of the paste each year.
Dozens of warehouses storing food for WFP as well as aid organisations like Save the Children have been raided since the start of the conflict, with WFP declaring in May that at least US$14 million of food supplies had been looted. Dozens of WFP trucks are also being delayed at border points, further exacerbating the crisis.
Dr. Arif Noor, Save the Children’s Country Director in Sudan, said:
“Never did we think we would see children dying from hunger in such numbers, but this is now the reality in Sudan.
“Seriously ill children are arriving in the arms of desperate mothers and fathers at nutrition centres across the country and our staff have few options on how to treat them. We are seeing children dying from entirely preventable hunger.
“The looting of UN warehouses, the burning of the therapeutic food factory, and the lack of funding have put significant strain on supplies of therapeutic nutritional products across the country.
“Our pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears. The funding appeals for Sudan remain only 27% funded, with partners in Sudan still unable to access the much-needed funds.
“With humanitarian access deteriorating on a daily basis, the international community must step up and work to not only increase funding but to find collective solutions to ensure that the much-needed food and assistance can be safely delivered to children and their families across Sudan, including those trapped by the fighting.”
Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983. In 2022, Save the Children directly reached 2.1 million people, including 1.5 million children, with programming focused on child protection, access to quality education, health and nutrition support and responding to emergencies.
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Health News – Stronger youth vaping measures welcomed

Source: Health Coalition Aotearoa

Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) welcomes Labour’s stronger proposed measures to address the serious problem of vaping among our tamariki and rangatahi.
Labour’s policy announced today included capping all vape stores to 600 nation-wide, a requirement for all retailers to obtain a license to sell vapes and harsher penalties for those selling to youth.
“We are heartened that the Labour Party is moving in the right direction with these measures because our tamariki and rangatahi need protection,” HCA Smoke-free Expert Advisory Group member and Takiri Mai te Ata Regional Stop Smoking Service Whanau Ora Collective regional manager Catherine Manning said.
HCA called for a “nicotine-free generation” policy to protect against the harms of nicotine addiction through vaping in its submission on the Government’s Smoke-free 2025 action plan in August 2022.
Manning said it was good to see the Labour Party responding to this. She said licensing should be applied to individuals who sell vaping products, as well as retailers.
“Individual sellers should also be required to obtain a license for both vaping and smoked tobacco products and should lose their license for any breaches,” Manning said.
Evidence from the ASH Year 10 surveys since 2015 suggests a generation of school children has become quickly addicted to very high levels of nicotine.
One 2021 school survey of 3,124 Year 9-13 students from 21 schools in Hawkes Bay found that 9.8% of students vaped daily, and 15% of daily vapers were waking up during the night to vape.
HCA co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn said Aotearoa can no longer ignore the harms of vaping and this was made clear by huge support for a petition delivered to Parliament by Vape-Free Kids Aotearoa last week.
“When parents, principals and rangatahi are turning up on the steps of Parliament pleading for help, we can see how significant the problem is.”
HCA is also calling on increased resources to monitor and enforce regulations regarding vaping to youth, and provision of appropriate support for tamariki and rangatahi who are now addicted to these products.
The response to vaping by the Government has not fully recognised Māori perspectives on the harms of addiction – among rangatahi and tamariki – and particularly as vaping prevalence among Māori and Pacific young people is significantly higher than NZ European youth.
“We must ensure that entrenching vaping among rangatahi of today and in future generations is not a legacy of the Smokefree Environments Amendment Bill,” HCA Smoke-free Expert Advisory Group chair Leitu Tufuga says.
Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) is a coordinating, umbrella organisation for the NGO, healthcare and academic sectors to achieve the collective vision of health and equity in Aotearoa/New Zealand. We envision greater health and equity for all New Zealanders through reduced consumption of harmful products (tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy foods and beverages) and improved determinants of health.
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Housing Market and Finance – Kiwis still spending half of household income on mortgage repayments

Source: CoreLogic

Housing affordability in Aotearoa New Zealand has generally been improving as property values fall, incomes rise and interest rates stabilise, however mortgage repayments are still eating up a large proportion of people’s income, according to the latest CoreLogic Housing Affordability Report.

Mortgage repayments as a percentage of gross annual average household income reduced from a peak of 53% in Q4 2022 to 49% last quarter, but remains well above the long-term average of 38%.

CoreLogic NZ Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson said the situation still looks pretty testing for new buyers.

“Even after the recent improvements, almost half of a household’s income being eaten up by interest repayments is relatively unaffordable compared to long-term averages. Although lower mortgage rates seem likely over a one to two year horizon, we’re not expecting any relief via rate cuts in the immediate to short-term,” Mr Davidson said.

“Given the uneasy prospect that property values may start rising, albeit gradually, once again as we’re already starting to see in a couple of regions, this will only add to the strain on new home buyers, at least until interest rates start to come back down,” he said.

Davidson added that rising incomes will only partially offset this.

Each of the main centres still has mortgage repayments as a percentage of gross household income at least eight percentage points higher than their own long-term averages, with Tauranga the most stretched and Wellington the least.

Value to income ratio continues to improve

Properties in New Zealand are now valued at 7.2 times the average household income, down from 7.8 six months ago.

Mr Davidson said the figure has fallen in recent months as property values have dipped and incomes continued to rise amidst the strong labour market backdrop, but remains above the long-term average of 6.1.

“The latest figure of 7.2 is significantly lower than Q1 2022’s peak of 8.8 and is the lowest since 7.1 in Q4 2020. In other words, a lot of the strain that emerged post-COVID has been easing but remains elevated by longer-term historical levels.”

Tauranga remains the least affordable main centre, with a value to income ratio of 9.5 in Q2 2023, followed by Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Christchurch and Wellington.

“After a period of very stretched affordability, the sharp falls in Wellington City house prices lately have seen this part of the country get markedly better in terms of purchasing power and it retains the title of most affordable from Christchurch for the second consecutive report,”Mr Davidson said.

Years to save a deposit reducing

The years to save a deposit measure fell to 9.6, still above the long-term average of 8.1, but two years better than the worst reading seen in Q1 2022 (11.7 years). Again, the latest figure is the lowest since Q4 2020.

Tauranga has the longest period of time required to save a deposit of any of the main centres, at 12.6 years, well above its long-term average of 10.8 years, and the national figure of 9.6 years. However, it has started to improve, having peaked at 15.8 years in Q1 2022.

Rental affordability relatively unchanged

Mr Davidson said rising incomes will have helped tenants in terms of rental affordability, but generally speaking, that has been offset by growth in rents themselves.

“Indeed, at the national level, rents currently absorb 22% of average household income, a touch above the average, but at least not much different from where it’s been for the past few years,” Mr Davidson said.

“The market that stands out is probably Christchurch, which has long been regarded as NZ’s most favourable main centre for housing affordability, both in terms of buying and renting, but this no longer applies to the same extent. Indeed, it’s now relatively more expensive to rent in Christchurch than Wellington, Auckland, and Hamilton.”


 

Value to 
Income ratio

Share of income
for repayments

Years to 
save deposit

Rent to 
income ratio

Main centre

Latest 
(Q2 2023)

Average
(2004-23)

Latest 
(Q2 2023)

Average 
(2004-23)

Latest 
(Q2 2023)

Average (2004-23)

Latest 
(Q2 2023)

Average (2004-23)

Auckland

8.1

7.2

55%

45%

10.7

9.6

19%

21%

Hamilton

6.8

5.4

47%

33%

9.1

7.2

21%

20%

Tauranga

9.5

8.1

65%

51%

12.6

10.8

29%

27%

Wellington

6.1

5.4

42%

34%

8.2

7.2

18%

18%

Christchurch

6.3

5.2

43%

33%

8.4

7.0

21%

20%

Dunedin

7.2

5.7

49%

36%

9.6

7.6

26%

24%

NZ

7.2

6.1

49%

38%

9.6

8.1

22%

21%

Affordability outlook

Mr Davidson said housing affordability started from such a stretched position that even after the recent improvements, it remains significantly worse than normal.

“We suspect this still-stretched starting point for housing affordability will play a role in capping the rate of price growth over the medium term, as would potential limits on debt to income ratios for mortgage lending that might be imposed by the Reserve Bank early next year.

“But any growth in house prices, even if modest, will put upwards pressure on many of these measures which will see housing affordability remain a critical issue for NZ in the coming years – even if incomes continue to rise and mortgage rates slowly fall in the longer term,” Mr Davidson said.

For more information or to read the latest Housing Affordability Report, visit corelogic.co.nz/news

About CoreLogic NZ

CoreLogic NZ is a leading, independent provider of property data and analytics. We help people build better lives by providing rich, up-to-the-minute property insights that inform the very best property decisions. Formed in 2014 following the merger of two companies that had strong foundations in New Zealand’s property industry – Terralink Ltd and PropertyIQ NZ Ltd – we have the most comprehensive property database with coverage of 99% of the NZ property market and more than 500 million decision points in our database.  We provide services across a wide range of industries, including Banking & Finance, Real Estate, Government, Insurance and Construction. Our diverse, innovative solutions help our clients identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. We also operate consumer-facing portal propertyvalue.co.nz – providing important insights for people looking to buy or sell their home or investment property. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of CoreLogic, Inc – one of the largest data and analytics companies in the world with offices in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and United Kingdom.  For more information visit corelogic.co.nz.

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Health News – The Government sees through the vape haze

Source: Asthma and Respiratory Foundation

Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand has been calling for tougher regulations to tackle our youth vaping epidemic since 2018. Letitia Harding, Chief Executive says, “it is great to hear that Labour recognises this is a major problem in Aotearoa and that they are willing to tackle it seriously”
The Foundation ran the largest youth vaping-focused survey in 2021, which found around 20% of secondary school students were regularly vaping, a finding consistent with other large surveys here in New Zealand, and overseas.
From that survey, a number of recommendations were made by the Foundation including; limiting the content of nicotine available in vaping products sold in New Zealand to a maximum of 20mg (2%), banning front-of-store window advertising and product displays by retailers, and preventing the sale of vaping products within a one-kilometre radius of any school by retailers.
Following the explosion of Specialist Vape Retailers (SVRs), now numbering over 1300 stores around the country, the Foundation has more recently been calling for a cap on the number of SVRs. “We are delighted to hear that Labour will now look to cap the number of SVRs to 600 stores in line with the number of tobacco outlets”, says Ms Harding.
Sharon Pihema, the Foundation’s Māori Community Liaison, runs workshops with secondary schools around the country and says, “school students themselves say how easy it is for under 18-year-olds to purchase and access vapes”, adding “these kids say it is simply the ease of accessibility and normalisation of vaping within their social circles that is the biggest problem, and if we can reduce this it will make a real difference”.
The Foundation supports the suggested changes to current vape regulations by Labour which would cap the number of vape stores nationally to 600, call for harsher legal penalties for retailers who sell to youth, and make vape products less visible from the storefront.
Ms Harding says ,”we look forward to all parties taking the youth vaping epidemic seriously, and hearing what their proposed regulations will be.”
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Farming News – Lower milk price forecasts dampen feed crop prospects

Source: Federated Farmers

The impacts of cuts to forecast milk payments to the nation’s 12,000 dairy farms will ripple across the wider economy, and the arable sector will also feel it, Federated Farmers Arable Vice-President Grains, Andrew Darling, says.
The July AIMI (Arable Industry Marketing Initiative) survey shows sown and intended sowing feed wheat and feed barley crops are down 6% and 15% respectively on last season.
“There’s probably still a reasonable market for feed grain in the North Island but it’s hard to transport South Island grain up there at a reasonable price, especially in competition with Australian grain.
“It’s an expensive bit of water that splits our country in half, unfortunately,” Darling said.
Sowings and intentions for malting barley – the barley used by our breweries – is up 77% on the 2023 harvest but while that sounds impressive, the hectares involved are relatively small (from 9,105ha to 15,569ha).
Overall, 2023 harvest data showed that yields were up 6% over the six malting/milling and feed crops and the area harvested, 96,022ha, was similar to 2022 (up 1%). The net result was a 7% increase in total tonnage compared to last season, the AIMI report found.
Feed wheat yields were up an estimated 1%, feed barley yields up 11%, milling wheat yields up 4%, malting barley yields up 6%, milling oats yields up 15% and feed oats yields down 2% compared to last season.
The estimated 2023 final tonnage of milling wheat at 113,700 tonnes, is up 44% compared to last year’s harvest “but we knew what was coming,” Darling said. “The weather last year was really poor.”
The amount of unsold milling wheat at 1 July this year was 26,700 tonnes (24%), higher than at 1 July 2022 (15,500t).
A large amount of the sold feed wheat (58%) was still stored on farm.
“A good amount of this will likely have been at a good contract price for the grower, and the merchant will be starting to move that grain now. Dairy farmers, given the outlook, probably aren’t as keen to fill feed silos at the moment as they have been in past seasons.”
Two thirds of the estimated 289,100 final tonnage of feed barley has been sold, with 38% of that grain still stored on farm. The amount of unsold feed barley was 97,000 tonnes (34%), considerably higher than at 1 July last year (59,300t).
Growers in the North Island and in Southland are looking forward to better spring conditions after a wet autumn and winter, Darling said. Some crops in Southland were drowned.
There was plenty of winter rain in Canterbury too but reports from that region are that most autumn crops have established well.
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Greenhouse gases down in most New Zealand regions in 2022 – Stats NZ media and information release: Greenhouse gas emissions by region (industry and household): Year ended 2022

Greenhouse gases down in most New Zealand regions in 2022 – Media release

22 August 2023

Greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 11 out of 16 regions in New Zealand in the year ended December 2022, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.

Waikato had the largest decrease in total greenhouse gas emissions, between 2021 and 2022, down 2,069 kilotonnes (13 percent), followed by Northland, down 540 kilotonnes (13 percent), and Manawatū-Whanganui, down 271 kilotonnes (4.8 percent).

Between 2021 and 2022, emissions in the Waikato region from electricity, gas, water, and waste services decreased 1,760 kilotonnes (39 percent), while emissions from agriculture, forestry, and fishing fell by 277 kilotonnes (3.5 percent).

Visit our website to read this news story and information release or to download CSV files:

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Health News – Senior doctors to take unprecedented strike action

Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists

Senior doctors and dentists employed by Te Whatu Ora have voted resoundingly in favour of nationwide strikes for the first time in New Zealand, following the breakdown of their pay negotiations.
The strike action comes as negotiations between Te Whatu Ora and the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists hit a roadblock with Te Whatu Ora wanting doctors to take a real-value pay cut for the third, consecutive year.
More than 80 per cent of ASMS members voted to take strike action across three strikes, to send a clear message to Te Whatu Ora that enough is enough.
ASMS’s claim on behalf of its members for a Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment this year (1 April 2023 to 30 March 2024) were rejected by Te Whatu Ora, who are trying to insist on another year of real-terms pay cuts.
This follows two years of real pay cuts under the Government’s “public sector pay guidance”, amounting to a real-terms pay cut of 11 per cent.
“Te Whatu Ora will not even pay senior doctors and dentists the bare minimum to ensure their staff do not take a real-terms pay cut for the third year in a row,” Executive Director Sarah Dalton says.
“Every employee in New Zealand deserves to have the value of their income maintained, especially when they are performing critical front-line tasks and being asked to cover as many staffing shortages as our doctors currently are.”
The strikes have been timed to disrupt patients as little as possible and will occur for two to four hours on September 5, 13 and 21.
“Te Whatu Ora and its funders are the target of these strikes, not patients,” Dalton says. “Doctors care about their patients but have decided failure to protect the value of their work will only result in more doctors leaving New Zealand or declining to apply for jobs here,” she says.
“The net result of doctors leaving is increased pressure on the remaining workforce and longer wait times to patients. We must stop the downward spiral of our doctors’ salaries to protect patients’ right to access healthcare in a timely manner.”
“Te Whatu Ora already acknowledges we are 1,700 senior doctors short across the country. We think that’s an extremely conservative estimate. Already, hospitals are critically short staffed, with senior doctors increasingly trying to run services with insufficient senior and junior doctors, nurses, and allied health staff.
“New Zealand relies heavily on overseas-trained doctors and dentists to fill vacancies with nearly 50 per cent of our senior medical workforce trained overseas. However, overseas doctors have largely stopped applying for jobs due to pay and working condition issues.”
ASMS President Julian Vyas says for too long the health system has got away with taking the collective goodwill of doctors for granted.
“At the same time, the system has ignored our concerns about short staffing restricting patient access to care and causing us overwork and burnout.
“For years and years, those in charge have failed to address the critical shortage of senior dentists and doctors, and simply expected us to keep putting up with it all this. And now, on top of everything else, we are being asked to swallow another real-terms pay cut.
“No more,” he says. “Many of our colleagues have indicated they have had enough and are looking to leave the public health system either for overseas postings or to the private sector.
“This will leave the public sector further short staffed, meaning patients have even less access to care, and senior staff even more fatigued and burned out. If there is no end in sight, even more specialists are likely to leave. The first battle is to get our pay just to keep up with CPI.”
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Health Investigation – CT scan results missed on discharge summary C21HDC00619

Source: Health and Disability Commissioner

A report by Deputy Commissioner Carolyn Cooper has found a GP breached the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights (the Code).
A woman in her 60s presented to ED at a public hospital following an injury. After an x-ray and CT scan, she was discharged with a primary diagnosis of soft tissue injury to her shoulder. The discharge summary did not include the results of the CT scan, because the formal report was not completed at the time of discharge.
The CT scan finding was missed by the woman’s GP who filed the third discharge summary without checking it, assuming it was a duplicate of the first two summaries, which contained no significant changes.
The CT scan results were discovered over two years later, following a visit by the woman to an Accident and Emergency clinic. At that stage, the woman had surgery to remove the mass in her neck, which was found to be metastatic squamous cell carcinoma.
However, Ms Cooper did note room for improvement to the medical centre’s policy on the management of clinical correspondence and results. This was included in the report’s recommendations.
– Personally apologising to the woman
– Informing his colleagues of the mistake to reduce the risk of a similar future event
– Meticulously reading all duplicate documents
– Closing his practice to new patients to allow more face-to-face patient time, and no longer seeing patients after hours to ensure a better work-life balance
Ms Cooper acknowledged the GP’s changes and also recommended that he:
– Undertake an audit of a random sample of 30 patient discharge summaries received by the medical centre, to confirm whether or not any recommendations and/or follow-up requests have been actioned.
– Complete a self-audit of his clinical records, using the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners clinical record review.