Bank closures 'hurting local communities'
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) says access to personal banking services in rural communities is fundamental to promoting outcomes that benefit Kiwi consumers.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is calling for the Government to work with rural communities on rural health.
RWNZ national president of Gill Naylor says rural communities need full resourcing based on their needs.
“A one-size-fits-all approach will not work,” Naylor told Rural News.
RWNZ wants to see a fully resourced co-design programme with rural communities. Naylor says this would identify health and wellbeing needs of the community and develop a plan for servicing those needs.
Her comments come just two months after Health Minister Andrew Little agreed to have a rural health strategy in the Pae Ora Healthy Futures Bill, which passed into law last month.
But Naylor points out that saying there will be a strategy isn’t enough.
“There needs to be a plan in place to make the strategy work and adequate resources in order to enable that plan to be implemented.”
She says a list of changes need to be implemented to help the sector, including changes to immigration policies for nurses, midwives, GPs and other health industry staff.
Naylor believes that NZ needs to make residency and citizenship pathways look more attractive to these workers. She adds also in need of urgent attention is the training to practice pipeline for nurses and nursing students.
“What has been the education pathway has clearly not been working with the lack in numbers of qualified staff so look at other ways of training nursing staff.”
She says one idea could be to move back into the hospitals with on-the-job training with a component of regular uni-based theory to complement.
Naylor would like the sector to be more realistic about salary scales and payment.
“We will keep losing staff overseas as salaries are not keeping up with international expectations.”
One thing that won’t work right now, Naylor believes, is increasing telehealth services.
“Many rural communities do not have the digital capacity or access to reliable internet, and many don’t have cellular coverage. This is not to say that rural communities won’t take up the opportunity to use telehealth, they just can’t access it, through no fault of their own.”
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has informed staff it will cut 391 jobs following a consultation period.
New Zealand farmers are committed to making their businesses more resilient to climate change and are embracing innovation to help them do so.
Atiamuri farmers Paul and Lesley Grey never gave up their dream of owning their own farm – and in 2020, that dream came true.