Dr Anne Tait, MBChB, FRACP

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Career

Anne graduated from Auckland Medical School in 1999.  She began her career in paediatrics at Southland Hospital, with initial registrar training in Auckland then 2.5 years advanced training in the United Kingdom followed by a final year of registrar training in Auckland.  She obtained her FRACP qualification in 2008.  Her first paediatric consultant job was at Waitakere and North Shore Hospital, then moving to Starship Children’s Hospital in March 2009 where she is currently employed as a full time general paediatrician for both inpatient and outpatient general paediatrics services.

Anne’s Specialists Interests  

Anne has interests in a wide range of general paediatrics, and has extensive experience in both acute and complex care of children.  She has a particular interest in feeding disorders of young children, being the lead paediatrician for the Starship pilot tube wean programme.  Anne greatly enjoys working in the multi-disciplinary team environment and has a lot of experience in working with various allied health professionals.  She also has considerable of experience in paediatric dermatology, having previously been the organiser of the paediatric dermatology clinics at Waitakere and Greenlane Hospital.  In addition Anne has experience with chronic pain conditions, having completed the Paediatric Pain Masterclass in Minneapolis in June 2014.  She attends a wide variety of conferences and education sessions in both in NZ and overseas as well as working closely with subspecialists at Starship in order to keep her medical knowledge up to date with current paediatric best practice.

Anne, the person

I have a wide range of interests outside of work and these include walking my dog Eddie, windsurfing, cycling and adventure travelling.  I recently completed the 100km Oxfam Charity Walk for a second time with colleagues from Starship Hospital and have also completed other sporting events such as the Etape de Tour.

Appointments

Because of increasing numbers of referrals, Anne will only accept referrals from GPs or other health professionals. 

As she is a general paediatrician and not an adolescent specialist, she will not see young people >15 years 0 months of age, unless she agrees to the referral in advance.  For adolescents with possible ADHD, mood or other behavioural issues, they would be better seen by a child & adolescent psychiatrist, developmental paediatrician or in the public sector.

Anne does triage all referrals, and if she feels that your child is best seen by another paediatrician or health provider then she will recommend that rather than having you wait a long period of time to see her.  However if parents prefer to wait to see Anne, please be aware that current waiting times are approximately four months at present.  That may be longer at times.

Most appointments are 60mins duration, however some more straight forward issues (i.e. Well Baby check, head shape check) can be seen in a 30min duration.  That will be decided by Anne on receipt of the referral.  Some appointments are complex (ie chronic fatigue, chronic pain, multiple medical issues) and may require a 90min appointment if Anne feels that is required on receipt of the referral.  If there is a significant amount of additional worked required in excess of that what is reasonable (i.e. going through extensive past medical documentation, contacting other providers etc) then Anne reserves the right to bill for her time outside of the clinic appointment to gather that information.  Alternatively the patient may require an additional 60min appointment in order to provide a comprehensive assessment.