The New Zealand medical journal
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread across the globe, driving radical transformation in the way patient care is delivered in primary and secondary care. As part of the response against COVID-19 across primary care in New Zealand, practices and medical centres have largely transitioned to telehealth over a short period of time while maintaining the traditional business model of in-person care on an as-required basis. To inform other primary care services and future practice, we describe our experience at one general practice and the challenges faced in the process of converting to telehealth in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In this viewpoint we briefly review the evidence for smoke-free car legislation. We find that this legislation has been consistently associated with reduced secondhand exposure in cars with children/youth in all nine jurisdictions studied. ⋯ So we argue that the New Zealand Ministry of Health should invest in a thorough evaluation of this important upcoming public health intervention. This could both help the country in further refining the design of the law (if necessary) and would also be a valuable contribution to advancing the knowledge base for international tobacco control.