increase font size
Southland District Health Board (SDHB) claims it is stepping up its investment in primary maternity services in rural areas.
SDHB’s Lisa Gestro – executive director strategy, primary and community – told Rural News its maternity services in the entire region have already been systematically reviewed. This comes in response to a Rural Women NZ (RWNZ) call for a wide ranging review.
“It has been independently reviewed and found that when fully implemented it will increase services across the district,” she says.
“We’re one year into a two year implementation timeframe.
“We recognise that some aspects of this have not gone as smoothly as we’d like and are having the implementation to date independently reviewed.”
RWNZ and others -- including signatories of two petitions -- are strongly objecting to the downgrading in April of Lumsden Birth Centre to a maternal and child hub and several subsequent emergency births at the centre, one in the carpark.
RWNZ has called for urgent reinstatement of the Lumsden birthing centre and has criticised the extent of two current reviews by Southland DHB. But Gestro says a systematic review of primary maternity services across the DHB’s entire, largely rural, district was precisely the exercise done from 2016 to 2018.
“There had long been calls to address the provision of maternity services across the district,” she said. “In particular, we faced challenges with the sustainability of the lead maternity carer (LMC) midwifery workforce.”
Gestro says while LMC midwives are paid directly by the Ministry of Health, SDHB recognises the particular challenges of practising in rural areas require extra support.
She says the ‘integrated primary maternity system of care’ aimed to take a holistic view to direct resources differently and increase the reach of services across the whole district.
“This meant creating maternal and child hubs in Wanaka, Te Anau and Lumsden to support midwives in those communities and improving integration with primary care services.”
Additional ‘sustainability’ payments are made to remote rural midwives, with 16 LMCs in the district taking the extra payment.
But Gestro says they need to think more broadly about how best to use their resources to care for rural women and their families.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) and Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network are calling for investment in a proposed new training pathway for rural GPs, warning that many rural practices are struggling to recruit while a large share of the existing workforce nears retirement.
OPINION: In the 1980s, concern was expressed in West Germany about the falling birth rate. Some simple analysis was performed by Professor Helmut Sies, physician and biochemist at Dusseldorf University. His letter ‘A new parameter for sex education’ was published in Nature in 1988:
Celebrating 50 years in the rural landscape of Central Canterbury and beyond, Ashburton-based Carrfields, has been the exemplar for all aspects of modern agriculture via its extensive range of services including supply, growing, agronomic advice and marketing.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Grace Su, a recent optometry graduate from the University of Auckland, is moving to Tauranga to start work in a practice where she worked while participating in the university's Rural Health Interprofessional Programme (RHIP).
Waikato milk processor Tatua has again declared a record milk payout to farmer shareholders, leaving other processors in the dust.
A Labour-led Government won’t be bringing back the controversial freshwater rules of 2020.
National’s much-touted free trade deal with India featured in the Rural Issues Debate at Mystery Creek, Hamilton on Wednesday night.
New Zealand's 2026-27 freshwater fishing season has opened, with anglers encouraged to head to rivers and lakes over the coming days as conditions look favourable across much of the country.
Central Otago District Council (CODC) has voted against a plan to spread treated sewage sludge from Cromwell and Alexandra on farmland near Lauder, a decision Federated Farmers says reflects strong opposition from rural residents.
Pāmu has released its FY26 Integrated Annual Report, reporting a Net Operating Profit of $113 million, more than double the $49 million recorded in FY25.
OPINION: The same mainstream media muppets that brought you Jacindamania in 2017 have been flat out pimping for the Opportunities…
OPINION: Your old mate reckons the atrocious way farmers in the UK are treated by their lords and masters in…
