Rally against further cuts to Southland Health services

Rally organised against further cuts to Otago and Southland Health services

03/08/2015

The local Facebook campaign “Stop the Cuts to Mental Health” has this week announced a rally for Dunedin residents to have their say about cuts to local and rural health services. This action has been sparked by the recent announcement that the Southern District Health Board has been underfunded by the Ministry of Health, causing strain on the health provider to keep services running without the financial ability to do so. Services like Mental Health are taking a major hit, with patients already sleeping on floors at Wakari Hospital when presenting in crisis. Rural services are having services cut and brought to Dunedin for treatment. Dunedin Hospital has lost what was world-class training accreditation.

Campaign founder Scout Barbour-Evans says “It is absolutely imperative that we as a community speak up about these issues. Too often we are hearing stories of lives put at serious risk by a lack of beds and a decrease in services provided at Dunedin. Christchurch is too far away for our Southland friends and whanau to receive life saving treatment in an emergency and we can't let our region's health services deteriorate any further.”

Stop the Cuts to Mental Health is calling for an increase in government funding of the SDHB, changes and transperancy in the population based funding model, a much needed rebuild of Dunedin Hospital, the opening of a dedicated psychiatric crisis ward at Wakari or Dunedin Hospital and an increase in community mental health services to act on the front line. Campaigners believe these actions will bring Southern health services back up to standard.

The rally will be held at 1pm, Sunday 16th August at the Octagon. Follow http://tinyurl.com/stopsdhbcutsmh for more information.

ENDS

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