Buller Hospital Petition To Be Delivered Today At Parliament

Tuesday 17 September

Petition to fix staffing shortages at Buller Hospital to be delivered today

Today at 12:15 pm on the Parliament forecourt (or underneath the Parliamentary Library Foyer if raining), Chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa, Malcolm Mulholland, will be joined by his father, George Mulholland, to present a petition to the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall that calls on the Government to urgently fix the staffing shortages at Te Rau Kawakawa/Buller Hospital. The petition reads: “That the House of Representatives urgently address the issues surrounding the unsatisfactory delivery of health services to the community of Buller by Health New Zealand West Coast due to an insufficient workforce.” The petition has been signed by 3115 people, including people from the Buller communities of Karamea, Seddonville, Granity, Waimangaroa, Westport, Reefton and Punakaiki.

Buller Hospital’s Acute Stabilisation Unit (ASU) has been closed for just under a month since it opened its doors in May last year due to staffing shortages. Adding to the problem of a lack of emergency health services in Buller is that there is only one rescue helicopter in operation to service the entire West Coast that is based in Greymouth and is weather dependent and the one Hato Hone/St John ambulance stationed in Westport is often used to transfer patients from Westport to Greymouth, leaving the Buller with no ambulance available. A serious incident review is currently being conducted by Health New Zealand into the death of Leo Lozano who presented to Buller Hospital on July 17.

States Malcolm Mulholland, who was raised in the small Northern Buller settlement of Seddonville, “Buller is very isolated from the rest of the country and to know that, at times there are no emergency services available to service the community, fills residents with worry and fear. The people of Buller welcome the Health Select Committee to come to Westport to hear firsthand the submitters to the petition, to see if they can get to the bottom of why there is no apparent recruitment and retention strategy in action. Buller is the smallest province by population in New Zealand and is the canary in the coalmine when it comes to the New Zealand health system. Right now, that canary is dying.

Malcolm’s father, George Mulholland, who lives by himself in Seddonville and is one of the oldest residents of Northern Buller aged 84, is worried about the state of healthcare in Buller. “I’m a prime example of why we need better access to healthcare in the Buller. I’ve worked my entire life as a miner, a farmer, and a mill and bush worker; to keep the economy going and I’ve paid my fair share of taxes. People my age who I’ve spoken to are happy to pay a little bit extra in tax to try and keep our nurses and doctors in New Zealand. This Government needs to pay our medics the same as Australia. We can’t keep being a medical training school for Australia and losing our best and brightest.

Spokesperson for the Buller Health Action Group Anita Halsall-Quinlan, states that the people of Buller are fed up with the lack of staff at Buller Hospital including the imminent closure of weekend and afterhours clinics in Buller. “The people of Buller are not happy about what is happening and are not going to take the lack of staff at Buller Hospital and the closure of weekend and afterhours clinics lying down. The people of Buller are concerned for the added burden this is going to place on our incredibly hardworking staff through the weekdays. All roads now lead to Saturday September 28th when Buller will march in silence to the Westport Clock Tower. I’ve never seen the people of Buller so motivated and united to do something to try and address the sad state of healthcare in our region.

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