By THERESA GARNER
Health workers battling South Auckland's child health crisis went to the children at the weekend.
About 10,000 children visit a McDonald's restaurant every week in South Auckland, a region where more children suffer illness and die than anywhere else in the country.
The population is mobile, and highly elusive, and many parents do not realise what free health care their children are entitled to.
So in a bid to stem an ever-increasing tide of child illness and hospital admissions, the South Auckland Health Foundation set up a clinic outside the Otara McDonald's. Foundation director Pam Tregonning thought up the idea after visiting a McDonald's.
"The penny just dropped. I thought, 'This is where the kids are.'"
The carpark clinic, enlivened by Pacific music, captured the attention of Saturday morning flea market shoppers. McDonald's patrons and hundreds of children and their parents queued for health checks.
The one-stop shop checked the children's teeth, hearing, vision, nutrition and immunisation status.
Middlemore Hospital paediatrician Dr Adrian Trenholme surveyed the busy clinic with a smile. "We've come to where the kids come.
"What we've done in the past hasn't worked. Changing the way we do things is the answer."
McDonald's is supporting the venture and is giving cheeseburger vouchers to children who have health checks.
"McDonald's is family-focused, and people friendly. Every kid knows where one is," Ms Tregonning said.
The same clinic will take place again next Saturday, and will be shifted to other McDonald's restaurants around South Auckland in coming months.
South Auckland is home to 10 per cent of New Zealand's under-14s, and nearly half live in areas considered among the most deprived.
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