Private general practice and integrative medicine

Medicine set by individual clinical need, not by the clock.

Health Function is the independent private medical practice of Dr Cindy de Villiers. Private General Practice is for those who want a doctor with time. Integrative Medicine is for those with more complex problems that have not been served by the usual investigations or interventions. In both, conventional medicine sits alongside an integrative approach, with attention to environment, nutrition, movement, sleep, stress and beliefs about health — considered for one person at a time, not applied from a population guideline.

The practice is based in Nelson and sees patients from around New Zealand. Patients register for a year and pay a subscription, rather than a fee for each visit. Applications can be made at any time. A place is offered when one opens and the practice is right for what that person needs.

01 — The practice

The person at the centre, and time for every question their health raises

Private General Practice

Integrative medicine applied to general practice.

Primary care outside the public system: diagnosis, treatment, prescriptions, referrals, and prevention. Government funding follows the number of patients a practice has enrolled, rather than the time spent with any one of them. Consultations are shaped accordingly, which serves a common problem well and a complicated one poorly. At Health Function, the length of a consultation and what happens in it follow the patient’s clinical need.

Private General Practice suits people whose health does not call for an extended investigation, but who want a doctor with time. One who explains what a result means for them in particular, and what should be done about it. A doctor who welcomes clinical questions and feedback between appointments. In general practice, an integrative approach assesses sleep, food, environment and anything else that may sit behind an everyday problem.

Integrative Medicine

Medicine applied to the whole person, and to everything they live with.

Light, environment, nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, and what a person believes about their health are assessed alongside conventional care. Where complementary approaches are considered, they are discussed openly and weighed against the evidence and the patient’s circumstances. Conventional treatment is always set out, with what it offers and what it asks. The decision is the patient’s.

It runs as a programme in stages, beginning with a full assessment in the first year and settling into regular review after that. A protocol sets the order of things: which supplements start when, which foods come out and when they go back in. Most protocols are written for a condition. A protocol at Health Function is built around the patient, with the diagnosis informing it without determining it.

Integrative Medicine suits people whose problems have not been settled by the usual investigations or treatments: symptoms that persist alongside normal results, several things happening at once, a diagnosis that accounts for only part of the picture. The work is to find the pattern, and keep testing it as things change.

A Year of Working Together

Health rarely changes in a single appointment.

Registration begins with an assessment of the history and what has already been tried. What follows is a change made, time to see whether it worked, and the next change after that. The cycle cannot be hurried. A change takes weeks to show anything, and a result only means something read against the one before it. A year is the shortest period in which that can happen more than once.

That is also what the year asks in return. Changes to sleep, food, environment, medication and supplements take effort to sustain, and the ones that work are rarely the easiest in the first fortnight. Registration is accepted on that understanding.

What this practice does is work out what is actually going on, and stay with it. A single appointment with someone whose full history and response to interventions are unknown cannot do that, which is why one-off consultations are not offered. That is what a year is for.

02 — Between appointments

Most of the work happens when you are not in the room.

An appointment is a few hours a year. Between them sit the results that have to be read against the last set, the plan that needs changing before the next review, the prescription that should not wait, and the clinical questions asked by patients.

A written summary follows every consultation: what was discussed, what was decided, and the plan from here. Results are returned with what they mean. Prescriptions and laboratory requests are actioned without an appointment. Referrals are made when they are needed. For Integrative Medicine patients, protocols are revised as results arrive, recorded in the notes and sent out without waiting for the next review.

All of it is done by the same doctor — the one who wrote the last summary and ordered the test being asked about. None of it is billed separately. Questions can be sent through the portal at any time, without an appointment, and are answered within two working days.

03 — The doctor

Dr Cindy de Villiers

Thirty years in medicine, twenty-five of them integrative.

Dr de Villiers has worked in general practice and in remote emergency departments, across a wide range of patients and problems. The move toward integrative medicine came from what she saw in ordinary consulting, from life, and from staying open to knowledge that continues to change. What she kept noticing was that how a person eats, sleeps, moves and lives accounts for a great deal of what arrives in the room, and that it differs from one person to the next.

She holds a Fellowship of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine. That training supports practical decisions about which investigations are worth ordering for a particular person, what a set of results means read together rather than one line at a time, and how a protocol is built for one person rather than for a condition. The fellowship is only the examined part. The reading, experience and case work are continuous.

The practice stays grounded in conventional medicine — examination, investigation, prescribing and referral where they are needed. The integrative work is added to that.

Registration and qualifications

  • Registered medical practitioner with the Medical Council of New Zealand — 20053
  • Vocationally registered in general practice; Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (FRNZCGP)
  • Fellow of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (FACNEM)

Any doctor's registration can be verified on the Medical Council of New Zealand's public register.

04 — Registration

From waitlist to ongoing care

1

Waitlist

Registrations are currently closed. People on the waitlist are contacted in order when a place opens.

2

Terms and fees

The fee schedule, subscription terms, and what is and is not included are published before any commitment is made.

3

Registration

Registration covers a year of care, paid quarterly in advance. The first consultations build a complete picture of health and history.

4

Ongoing care

Consultations in person in Nelson, or by secure video and phone where appropriate to individual clinical need, with the patient portal for administration between visits.

05 — Fees

A single subscription, published in full

Health Function is not government-funded, which is what allows consultations to run to individual clinical need rather than the clock. In place of per-visit billing, patients pay a subscription: registration is for a year, billed quarterly in advance.

The complete fee schedule — what the subscription covers, what is billed separately (such as laboratory tests), and how cancellation works — is set out on the fees page and agreed before registration. There are no charges that have not been published first.

The subscription includes

  • Scheduled consultations across the year, in person or by secure video
  • Repeat prescriptions and routine referrals for registered patients
  • A personalised plan, reviewed as circumstances change
  • Portal access for administration between consultations

06 — Questions

Common questions

Do I need to live in Nelson?

No. The practice is based in Nelson and sees patients from around New Zealand. Consultations are held in person or by secure video and phone where that suits the individual's clinical need; some assessments do require an in-person visit.

What does "integrative medicine" mean here?

Conventional general practice, extended with attention to nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, and environment. Where complementary approaches are considered, they are discussed openly, weighed against the available evidence and the individual's circumstances, and used alongside — never instead of — conventional treatment that is needed.

Is this public-health-guideline medicine?

Population guidelines are written for the average of many people; they are a starting point, not an end point. At Health Function, assessment and treatment are worked out for the individual — their history, circumstances, and goals — within the standards that apply to all registered doctors in New Zealand.

Can I book a one-off consultation?

No. The practice works only with registered patients, because meaningful primary care depends on knowing a full history and having time to follow through. Registration is for a year.

Are you taking new patients?

Registrations are currently closed. The waitlist below is the only route in: when places open, people on the list are contacted in order.

Does this replace my enrolled GP or after-hours care?

Health Function provides ongoing planned care for registered patients. It is not an emergency or after-hours service. In an emergency always call 111; for urgent after-hours advice call Healthline on 0800 611 116.

How is my health information handled?

Clinical records are held in the practice's clinical record system in accordance with the Health Information Privacy Code 2020. The Register Interest form on this website is processed by Formspark, whose servers are outside New Zealand; the information entered is used only to assess and manage registration. Once registered, all clinical communication takes place through the patient portal.

Perspectives

Writing from the practice

All perspectives →

Individualised medicine

N-of-1 trials and citizen science

Why the research that guides medicine is built on the average of many people — and what it means to study the only patient who is actually you.

The practice of medicine

Guidelines, automation, and personalised medicine

How medicine was quietly automated — and what a small independent practice can do to keep it personal.

Physiology

The vagus nerve and heart rate variability

The nerve that links mind and body, and why a heartbeat's tiny variation is a useful window onto an individual's health.

07 — Apply

Register interest

Complete the form below to register your interest. When places become available, people on the list are contacted in order. Registering creates no obligation on either side, and Health Function may decline an application.

Information entered here is used to assess and manage your registration. It is processed by Formspark, whose servers are located outside New Zealand, and handled in line with the privacy policy. This form is not for urgent medical matters — if you need help now, contact your regular general practice; in an emergency call 111.

Home address

Please give your physical address, not a PO Box. A physical address is needed to meet Health New Zealand requirements.

About your enquiry

How did you hear about Dr Cindy de Villiers?

Acknowledgements

All four are required.

Details entered here are used only to assess and manage registration and to make contact about it. Submissions are processed by Formspark, whose servers are located outside New Zealand — see the privacy policy.