Jone's 'champion idea' helps him put his best foot forward

DAWN Vodivodi says her husband has problems finding shoes to fit his “Fiji feet” but his chances of doing so just got better.

Being the first-ever winner of the Three Rivers Medical Turanga Health 'champion ideas' competition, Jone Vodivodi has received a $200 voucher for a new pair of sports shoes.

Under the Champion Ideas dual initiative, Turanga Health and Three Rivers have simple questionnaires in their waiting rooms which they use to ask a different question each month.

The query Jone answered to win his voucher, for example, was seeking three top ideas for a warm, healthy home, while the May questionnaire seeks ideas about how to prevent falls in the home.

Three Rivers chief executive Ingrid Collins say the information gathered from the questionnaires will help the two organisations in their partnership to provide better primary health services.

“Our people are our biggest source of intelligence,” she says. “That is a resource we want to tap in to.”

Meanwhile, Jone Vodivodi says having new shoes will help with his next challenge – to work on his fitness.

“I first went to Turanga Health about five years ago to do their smoking cessation programme and that worked really well,” he says.

“But after giving up smoking I put on a bit of weight so now it's time to do something about that.”

CAPTION: From left: Turanga Health events co-ordinator Dallas Poi, Champion Ideas inaugural winner Jone Vodivodi, and Ingrid Collins, Chief Executive of Three Rivers Medical.

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