Organisations behind the Wānaka after-hours health service gave credit to the community in an opening ceremony yesterday (Monday October 14).

Named Wānaka Acute Overnight Care, the new service is provided by Central Otago Health Services Limited (COHSL) in collaboration with local GPs, St John and Ka Ora, and funded by Health New Zealand.

Minister of health Dr Shane Reti first announced the service was on its way during a visit to Wānaka in June.

A range of organisations and individuals had worked hard to bring the service to life in the months since, COHSL chief executive Hayley Anderson said.

“We have arrived,” Hayley told the crowd at yesterday’s opening event. 

The service is accessed via the Aspiring Care reception, adjacent to the Wānaka Lakes Health Centre.

The seven-night-a-week service is being run from two clinic rooms in Aspiring Care, adjacent to the Wānaka Lakes Health Centre.

Hayley thanked representatives from a range of organisations as well as “the people in this community who have really pushed for a better deal for people who live here”.

Aspiring Village chief executive James Reid said there had been a “soft opening over the last week” and described the experience with the first ever patient, which was “a textbook situation”.

Rather than taking the patient to Dunstan Hospital, St John transported the patient to the after-hours service where the clinical nurse specialist and a senior doctor (via telehealth) provided assessment, point of care testing and observation.

The patient was very happy with the service and able to return to the community without disruption, James said.

Queenstown Lakes District mayor Glyn Lewers and Central Otago Health Services Ltd chief executive Hayley Anderson.

It was a “great outcome” and showed the service doing “exactly what it’s designed to do,” he said.

COHSL chair Richard Thompson said primary care up and down the country was struggling to provide 24/7 care and that challenge is “even more acute in small communities”.

He said the Wānaka after hours service had been in the works for several years but “the funding was not there”.

“Without the community, we wouldn’t be here today,” he added. The funding came about in the end, I believe, because the community said, ‘this is simply not acceptable’.”

The new service, while “not a perfect solution”, was worth celebrating, he said.

Wānaka’s new after-hours health service, Wānaka Acute Overnight Care, runs seven days a week, from 11pm-8.30am Monday-Friday and 11pm-9am on weekends and public holidays.

Health NZ funding for the service has been provided for one year, but there will also be a patient co-payment for the service.

Consultation fees from 11pm for those enrolled with a WellSouth GP practice will be $180 (for those 14 years and over) and free for those under 14. For ACC injuries the fees will be $65 for enrolled patients over 14, and free for those under 14.

Fees are higher for New Zealand visitors ($280 for over 14) and overseas visitors and non residents ($650).

PHOTO: Wānaka App