Union Health Services Struggling to Make Ends Meet

Union Health Services Struggling to Make Ends Meet

Wellington, 17 September 2013 - If the Hutt Union Community Health Service’s Petone clinic is forced to close due to inadequate funding it is likely to be just the first of many services around the country to face the chop, Newtown Union Health Manager Fiona Osten says.

She says HUCHS is far from alone among providers of healthcare to the country’s poorest citizens finding it hard to make ends meet.

“Like HUCHS we’re struggling to meet the increasing needs of our membership within a shrinking budget, earlier this year we reluctantly wound up our midwifery service – a service that provided specialist care to refugee communities – due to a lack of on-going funding.”

Cuts to Very Low Cost Access Practices (VLCAs) like HUCHS and NUHS are a false economy, Ms Osten says.

“The communities we serve have the highest health needs and face a raft of barriers in accessing primary health care services. Patients, who aren’t seen by primary health services like ours, invariably end up being hospitalised at far greater expense to the public purse.“

"It’s in the whole community's interest that services like the Hutt Union Community Health Service's Petone clinic remain open", Ms Osten says.

ENDS

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