Buller Health Action Group And Patient Voice Aotearoa Buller To March For Better Health Services

Buller Health Action Group (BHAG) and Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) are mobilising the people of Buller to march for better health services. Buller has been plagued with relentlessly eroding health services in recent years, with the new telehealth service to replace primary urgent and after-hours services coming into force two days after the march (October 1). The community also has little faith and confidence regarding the new Te Rau Kawakawa facility (Buller Hospital) that has been shut for approximately a month within its first year of operation due to severe understaffing.

States spokesperson of BHAG, Anita Halsall-Quinlan “Our community campaigned strongly for a fit-for-purpose hospital facility in 2017. The hospital has been in operation for over a year, but it is failing to serve Buller because it has had to shut its doors due to there not being enough staff. When the hospital is closed, the responsibility of urgent care rests with volunteers rather than the West Coast Primary Health Organisation (WCPHO). The plan from the WCPHO to shut after hours services on the West Coast will, as they admit, lead to more admissions to the hospital. When the hospital’s doors are closed, what are patients supposed to do?

“The WCPHO is contracted and funded by Health New Zealand to supply health services to the community. The expectation is that those services will include face to face patient care, rather than be delivered over the phone. We also have major concerns about the cost of the telehealth service being $79 to speak to a clinician, or $99 if the call is made after 10 pm. If the person needs an ambulance, they will need to pay up to $200 for the service. That’s nearly a $300 bill for people who live in a region where the median income of families is lower than the rest of the country and who, like so many other kiwi families, are doing it tough in the current cost-of-living crisis.

States chair of PVA and Buller-raised Malcolm Mulholland “Our protest is not a criticism of the hard-working doctors and nurses who try their very best with few resources; it’s about a system failure that needs to be fixed urgently by bureaucrats and politicians. Failure to urgently address the crisis will result in the people of Buller suffering, and potentially in some cases, die from a lack of health services. Buller is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the New Zealand health system. Right now, that canary is dying.

Details of the march

12:00 pm Saturday September 28.

The silent march will depart from Victoria Square and will end at the Westport Clock Tower where local and national speakers will address the people of Buller.

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