Wānaka is a community that prides itself on health, wellness, and its beautiful natural environment.

At least that's what more than 5,000 people have signed up to, in a petition opposing a resource consent application by international fast food chain McDonald's. The petition says McDonald’s goes against “all of our core community values”.

We certainly live in a stunning natural environment. As for wellness, we have a burgeoning wellness industry covering everything from yoga studios to cacao slingers. But do we pride ourselves on the health of our community? Let's unpack that.

A major determinant of health is a strong public health infrastructure.

Despite Wanaka's image as an affluent, active and healthy community, we face major challenges in terms of health services and access to them. Despite a rapidly expanding population (including many retired and elderly people), we continue to be served by only two GP practices in one location, both of which reduced after hours care last winter. Many locals find it difficult to see a doctor at short notice.

We are an hour's drive from our nearest secondary hospital in Clyde (Dunstan Hospital). Fifty per cent of its patients hail from the Upper Clutha but our local council this year again refused to pay a measly $1,500 to the charity which manages the hospital.

We continue to pay for medical and screening services which many other New Zealanders receive for free.

We are at least three hours' drive from a tertiary hospital (Dunedin) which offers surgical services.

We rely heavily on a partially government funded and largely volunteer St John Ambulance Service, which is often stretched.

Te Whatu Ora (formerly the Southern District Health Board) has only just begun alterations on a lodge purchased 18 months ago to turn into a primary birthing unit so local mothers won't have to drive for at least an hour to give birth. We still don't know when it will open.

We live on the Alpine Fault, which is overdue for a major earthquake, and local volunteers are doing the hard yards trying to coordinate emergency planning in the case of a natural disaster in the absence of clear accountabilities around such planning.

Other determinants of health are economic and social issues like inequity in income and housing. Sound familiar? Commentary on social media and real life conversations about the possible advent of McDonald’s suggest quite a divide in residents’ disposable income and options for eating out. 

Pressure on housing (largely for the workers who keep this place humming) is a huge challenge in our community. The long term local who owns the land where McDonald's is hoping to develop a new restaurant thinks Wānaka has more problems to deal with than the potential arrival of a third international fast food chain. He says “housing or the lack of it should be top of mind”.

I suggest that efforts put into opposing yet another purveyor of processed foods in our town would be better spent lobbying for better access to health services in this community. 

Where is the petition for that?