Friday 25 August

Every Kiwi should have the right to hear like Danielle

The health coalition supporting Danielle Mackay’s successful campaign for a publically-funded cochlear implant says every Kiwi should get the same good news.

YesWeCare.nz welcomes yesterday’s announcement that Danielle Mackay, a 22 year old surf life-saver from Levin, will finally be getting a cochlear implant after a four year wait.

The National party announced yesterday they would increase adult cochlear implants from 40 to 100 by shifting $6.5m from another part of the health system.

The party hasn’t confirmed if the funding is a one off or permanent.

YesWeCare.nz coordinator Simon Oosterman thanks the 26,643 New Zealanders who signed Mackay and the coalition’s petition and who he says were essential for the win.

“Danielle is an amazing young woman who has never wavered in her belief that she has a right to hear,” he says. “Bill English needs to step up and give the same great news to the hundreds of Kiwis who will continue to struggle with hearing loss because they’ll still miss out.”

Oosterman says no one should have to fight for a basic right to hear.

“This great news is tainted by the political timing of the announcement,” he says. “This is an announcement from a party that intentionally kept base-line cochlear implant funding static for three years and has underfunded our health system by $2.3 billion.”

He says the party should offer new funding instead of taking it from another “struggling” part of our health system.

YesWeCare.nz is a coalition of community groups, patients and their families and people working in health.

ENDS

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