Barbara Stewart MP
Spokesperson for Health
21 March 2013

Health Service Cuts Puts Lives at Risk

The Government’s reduction in health services in Marlborough will have a negative impact on people living in the region, says New Zealand First.

Health Spokesperson Barbara Stewart says moving services from Wairau Hospital in Blenheim and centralising them in Nelson will force people to travel longer distances to access crucial health services.

“This is moving people away from their families to another place where often the travel time is more than four hours.

“Even a recently released daily hospital management report highlighted the issues people are having transporting themselves to other centres. The only other option for these people is to delay getting care.

“The biggest impact is on the young and the elderly who often don’t have the means to travel to other centres.”

Mrs Stewart says the Government’s cut and slash approach is damaging the health sector.

“It is putting New Zealanders health in danger.

“Health Minister Tony Ryall must back down from the proposal to move services away from Blenheim.

“Even he must see this proposal doesn’t match the Government’s rhetoric of ‘Better, Sooner, More Convenient Health Care’,” says Mrs Stewart.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>