increase font size
Dr Fiona Bolden
OPINION: Just as the entire country’s health system moved into a new structure last week, a fresh Rural Health Network was also launched.
Hauora Taiwhenua brings into one organisation nine separate groups who work in the rural health sector – including those working as Rural GPs, nurses, midwives, hospitals, researchers, community organisations and Maori.
According to the entity’s interim chair Dr Fiona Bolden, the main benefit of the new organisation is that it brings all the representatives of rural health and wellbeing into one place. She says, in doing so, it creates a very powerful voice in terms of rural health advocacy.
As Bolden says, this is a crucial time for the NZ health service as the new reforms take effect. NZ’s health service – especially rural – is suffering from underfunding and a lack of workforce planning.
One of the problems with the rural health system is what is known as the ‘post code lottery’, where health services are delivered on artificial boundaries and not necessarily relevant communities of interest.
Dr Bryan Betty, medical director of the College of General Practitioners, rightly points out that it’s important for patients with complex health issues and/or living in deprived areas to have quick access to frontline medical services – which is a real issue for many rural folk.
He hopes that the new structure of the country’s health services will bring an end to the ‘post code lottery’ that everyone talks about. That is something we all, particularly those in rural regions, are hopeful of.
However, as rural people are only too aware, postcodes and mail deliveries can sometimes be slow and unreliable. But when it comes to the health of rural communities this cannot be allowed to happen.
As Brian Betty correctly says, it’s an equity issue to ensure that we are giving equal health outcomes to all people in NZ and that includes rural communities.
It is a matter of life and death that these changes to NZ’s health system actually deliver!
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).
In an ever-changing world, things never stay completely the same. Tropical jungles can turn into concrete ones criss-crossed by motorways, or shining cities collapse into ghost towns.
The Government wants to make sure that rural communities get a level of service that people who live in cities often complacently expect.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) says it welcomes recently announced consultation on Pharmac’s funding of ostradiol patches used by women going through perimenopause and menopause.
Over 1,000 Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers in the Hawke’s Bay have now been immunised against measles.
While the District Field Days brought with it a welcome dose of sunshine, it also attracted a significant cohort of sitting members from the Beehive – as one might expect in an election year.
Irish Minister of State of Agriculture, Noel Grealish was in New Zealand recently for an official visit.
While not all sibling rivalries come to blows, one headline event at the recent New Zealand Rural Games held in Palmerston North certainly did, when reigning World Champion Jack Jordan was denied the opportunity of defending his world title in Europe later this year, after being beaten by his big brother’s superior axle blows, at the Stihl Timbersports Nationals.
AgriZeroNZ has invested $5.1 million in Australian company Rumin8 to accelerate development of its methane-reducing products for cattle and bring them to New Zealand.
Farmers want more direct, accurate information about both fuel and fertiliser supply.
A bull on a freight plane sounds like the start of a joke, but for Ian Bryant, it is a fond memory of days gone by.
OPINION: If you ask this old mutt, the choice at the next election isn't shaping up as a contest of…
OPINION: A mate of yours says we're long overdue for a reckoning on what value farmers really get for the…
