Country Correspondent: Aisha Gomez
The recommendations from the Choosing Wisely campaign that educates health professionals and patients on treatments, tests, and procedures that are potentially unnecessary or harmful have been endorsed by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. The college has been promoting these recommendations to general practitioners through their electronic weekly newsletter as a "tip of the week." The college has endorsed several measures that recommend avoiding: overprescribing antibiotics for upper respiratory infections; ordering unnecessary CT scans on otherwise healthy emergency room patients; and prescribing benzodiazepines to older adults. The college has decided not to create its own list of recommendations since many of the Choosing Wisely recommendations are applicable to general practitioners who are often faced with limited resources, overwhelming workloads, and little time with patients.
