Health Action Wānaka (HAW) members have met with Health NZ staff following the release of the advocacy group’s report ‘Perception versus reality: the true state of healthcare in the Upper Clutha’.

The report identified significant unmet needs, systemic barriers, and a lack of strategic health planning for this area and Health NZ met with HAW about it late last week.

HAW steering committee chair Monique Mayze told the Wānaka App that Health NZ staff Aroha Metcalf (community integration group manager) and Emma McDonough (community integration senior local manager) thanked HAW for producing the report.

“They reinforced to us that they recognise the rapid growth occurring in our region, and said they would use our research to inform their planning for health services in our region,” she said.

Read more: Healthcare crisis for Upper Clutha - report

During the meeting the two organisations focused on the feasibility of three ‘quick wins’ - telehealth psychiatric consultations, publicly funded blood collection, and access to radiology funding - which had been proposed by HAW to health minister Simeon Brown, Monique said.

HAW is seeking funding for telehealth psychiatric services to provide consultation to non-government organisations and community frontline mental health and addiction services, and Monique said Health NZ recognised the need for such a service. Health NZ said it would look at facilitating this as part of the region's broader mental health framework.

Health NZ also agreed the provision of publicly-funded blood collection is needed to ensure equitable access to such services across the South Island, Monique said, but staff told her the approach would need to be incremental. 

“We suggested that a viable next step could be for Health NZ to provide funding to local primary health providers to deliver the service without passing on cost to the patient,” she said.

“They said that modelling is underway and that they would come back to us with an update within months.”

HAW is also seeking access to a share of $30M of radiology funding announced by then health minister Dr Shane Reti last year, given the closest funded radiology services for this area are at Dunstan Hospital an hour’s drive away.

There are ultrasound and x-ray services available at a cost in Wānaka with minimal wait times but “we are seeking publicly funded access to Wānaka providers, with direct referral, and we believe that given Dr Reti’s announcement last year of additional funding to support increased access to radiology services around the country, this is a reasonable request,” Monique said. 

She said HAW’s research has found that some locals needing an MRI have been required to go on a waitlist to see a specialist in Dunedin, travelled to Dunedin to receive an MRI referral, travelled to Queenstown or Dunedin to have the MRI, then returned to Dunedin to see the specialist to review these results. 

“Using a share of this funding, our community could make use of the private providers who are already based in Wānaka, and allow GPs to make direct referral where appropriate, reducing the need for patients to wait to see a specialist and then have to wait on a long waitlist to access funded radiology services,” she said.

HAW plans to seek another meeting with Health NZ within the next few months, Monique said.

PHOTO: Supplied