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Chief Executve Shares Message in Rural Waikato
Chief Executve Shares Message in Rural
Waikato
Waikato District Health Board
chief executive Craig Climo is presenting the rural health
service delivery picture in Waikato communities starting
this week.
Rural health is one of six Waikato DHB priorities, with more than 200,000 Waikato residents living outside Hamilton city.
Delivery of rural health services in New Zealand is changing with innovative solutions coming to the fore to ensure comprehensive levels of service continue where possible.
Mr Climo is presenting on the issue via video to Thames and Hamilton community health forum members over the next two weeks, but will visit Taumarunui and Te Kuiti on Wednesday (21 July) and Tokoroa (Wednesday 28 July) as part of Waikato DHB’s regular community health forum round.
In his presentation, Mr Climo paints a picture of changing service delivery in rural communities in the coming years, with workforce and clinical sustainability issues becoming a reality in rural New Zealand.
“I’m committed to having services close to the population, but am concerned that I can’t assure you that current services will continue to operate either next week or next year,” said Mr Climo.
“There are global issues around staffing and sustainability facing rural communities – services must be reliable, safe and sustainable, and it’s the sustainability issue that concerns me.
“The question is, what are the services that we can assure ourselves we can continue to deliver in rural Waikato over the next 10 years and longer?.”
He said the changes are not driven by financial issues.
“If somebody said, ‘here’s a solution for $5 million’, I’d take it with both hands.”
Mr Climo said rural communities are becoming increasingly difficult to recruit to for lifestyle and personal preference reasons, meaning that DHBs needed to start thinking long-term and smarter about how to maintain service delivery in rural towns.
To that end, Waikato DHB and Pinnacle are currently carrying out a viability project on the option of creating an integrated family health centre in Tokoroa, which may be a pilot site for a way forward for rural health service delivery in the greater Waikato.
Integrated family health centres are a National government initiative, which look at creating a central base in rural communities where primary (i.e. GP and pharmacy) and some secondary services (i.e. outpatient clinics) can be delivered from one place, providing the ability to share the workforce between sectors and convenience to the local public.
To hear more about what Mr Climo has to say at community health forums over the next two weeks, and to find out more about Waikato DHB community health forums, visit www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/gettinginvolved
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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