7 October, 2019

After experiencing excellent pre and post-operative care at Bay of Islands and Whangarei Hospital, Russell retiree, Uwe Schmutzler contacted Northland Community Foundation to donate $1000 to each hospital as a thank you to staff.

Mr Schmutzler had both his knees replaced through Northland DHB this year and said he found all staff to be excellent. He believed that needed acknowledging, and decided to make a donation, "I hope that they will derive a bit of encouragement from this to keep up their good attitude and work that makes such a big difference to the majority of patients they need to look after."

However, the generous offer came with two conditions – one, that staff had a say about how the money was to be spent. Clinical nurse managers, Grant Cochran from the General Ward at Bay of Islands Hospital and Tanya Kitchen from Ward One at Whangarei Hospital spoke with their teams, and Grant's staff decided to use the money for their monthly get-togethers, while Tanya's team chose to have a water cooler installed and to purchase a sandwich press, a jug and if there was any money left over to have a piece of art put up on the ward. The teams were thrilled by Mr Schmutzler's acknowledgement, as well as the opportunity to choose what to do with the funds.

His second requirement was that he got receipts for his donation to ensure he was eligible for the 33 percent tax deduction available for all charitable contributions. This is something many people are not aware of – by donating $2,000 to Health Fund PLUS through the Foundation, Mr Schmutzler will receive a $660 tax credit.

Health Fund PLUS has been set up by Northland DHB and Northland Community Foundation to provide a way for people to give to the DHB by way of donations or endowments.

These donations or gifts enable us to get the 'optional extras' in equipment and services for the DHB that can make all the difference in providing the best quality healthcare possible.

Note that donations and gifts are never used as an alternative to Government funding. Giving is easy. The first thing is to have people contact Northland Community Foundation to talk about their idea for a gift.

Call Northland Community Foundation on 021 558 224 at any time for all the information you need.

Some people give a regular donation, some give a one-off gift, some prefer to make provisions in their Will. The Northland Community Foundation will discuss all of these options.

Image: Whangarei Hospital’s Ward One staff with their purchases

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