My Food Bag founders Cecilia and James Robinson launch healthcare service

Saturday, 24 October 2020

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says thank you to Kiwis for their efforts in staying home and keeping people safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

My Food Bag co-founders Cecilia and James Robinson are looking to disrupt the health sector with the launch of their new business Tend, a healthcare provider opening this week in Auckland.

The couple decided to create their own healthcare clinic after their personal experiences with the health system.

“We had a still born baby and a pregnancy loss and have had a lot of experience going through the health system and often found, while there were a lot of well-intentioned people working hard, it’s fundamentally broken in terms of infrastructure and delivery of services to patients,” Robinson said.

“With advances in technology, we shouldn’t be expecting people to have to take time off work, travel across town and sit in a waiting room worried about getting sick for a routine medical appointment,” she said.

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Through Tend’s app patients can book appointments to visit doctors either in person at a clinic in Kingsland, or virtually, and access all their medical history and prescriptions.

The app was also co-founded by Northland District Health Board member and Auckland University senior lecturer Dr Mataroria Lyndon, and former senior vice president of product and engineering at Pushpay Josh Robb.

Through Tend’s app patients could book appointments to visit doctors either in person at a clinic in Kingsland, or virtually, and access all their medical history and prescriptions.

My Food Bag co-founders Cecilia and James Robinson are looking to disrupt the health sector with the launch of their new business Tend, a healthcare provider opening this week in Auckland.

The app has launched with about a dozen doctors and nurses, but Robinson said the company was still recruiting health care professionals, as it planned to grow nationally.

“We know there is a looming GP shortage and this is only going to get worse. The 2018 Royal New Zealand General Practitioners annual workforce survey predicted a quarter of GPs intended to retire within the next five years, and half intend to retire within ten years.

“Some regions are already facing acute GP shortages and, unless we do things differently, we are on the verge of a primary healthcare crisis.

“Tend offers the opportunity to engage with the primary healthcare workforce in a way that works better for them, providing more flexible working arrangements and delivering effective and accessible healthcare services to all New Zealanders.”

One of the critical components in the development of Tend was protecting confidential medical data and ensuring complete patient privacy.

Robinson said the app would be “as safe as Internet banking”.

Tend was also the first digitally led healthcare provider to secure an Primary Health Organisation agreement, to help subsidise the cost for patients.

She said for its launch patients’ first visit was free but the rate for both casual and enrolled patients was $49 per visit or consultation.

Enrolled patients could receive free repeat prescriptions and children under the age of 14 were free, she said.

Through Tend patients could access doctors from 7am to 9pm on weekdays and 8.30am to 4.30pm.

Patients could also choose their preferred doctors and see their availability.

Robinson said Tend’s founders had the vision of making New Zealanders the healthiest people in the world.