About 200 people walked a kilometre on a sunny Napier afternoon at a rally protesting the decline in health services in the city.
Sparked by a proposal to remove nurses from urgent overnight care at the Napier Health Centre – a plan which has now been scrapped – the throng on Sunday included Mayor Kirsten Wise in the front line, wearing the mayoral chain, with Deputy Mayor Annette Brosnan at her side, and at least five other councillors.
The mayor and others also highlighted matters around the city of 67,500’s lack of a public hospital for more than 25 years and the development of Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings as a regional hospital since the closure.
There were promises, they believe, of a hospital in perpetuity at the time of the 1851 acquisition of the land by the Crown.
Wise said underinvestment had been around for “a long time”, back to when she was working as an accountant with the health board in the hospital facilities on Hospital Hill, the Mataruahou site deemed most suitable for healthcare in Napier for more than a century.
“It was partly why I left,” she said, recalling worries about insufficient resources to meet the needs of the doctor and other staff to provide the services they believed were necessary.
Wise said she’s seeking fuller notes of the concerns raised during protests against the Napier Hospital closure, which led to legal challenges, and she hopes to form an action group that can concentrate on the issues and go “direct to Government”.
“We would like to think they would listen,” she said.
The rally started at the Marine Parade Sound Shell at 1pm, with short speeches led by health services campaigner Malcolm Mulholland, of advocacy group Patient Voice Aotearoa, and the mayor.
It then headed via Marine Parade and Vautier and Raffles streets to the health centre in Wellesley Rd, for the symbolic Hands Around Napier Health Centre moment, when they were addressed again by Mulholland, with a “lament” read in alternating verses by councillor Chad Tareha and schoolboy Daniel Brosnan, son of the deputy mayor.
The lament tracked the history from the promise of a hospital made by Crown land purchasing agents in 1851, through the loss of the hospital and the modern situation.
Tareha said: “Cut by cut, Napier’s witnessed less and less, costing more and more, until there was almost nothing left, as Māori had foresaw.”
Several of those who took part were in chairs or were otherwise aided walkers.
Three months after change was first circulated among some staff, Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora has confirmed there will continue to be no doctor based at the Napier centre overnight, but the existing nurse-provided walk-in service will be retained and an additional nurse with the ability to prescribe will be added as well as an overnight “telehealth” phone consultation medical service.
But there was no backing down for rally organisers, Mulholland and the mayor saying it had been difficult to gauge how many would front up.
They said they were happy with the numbers, after an announcement by the Minister of Health claiming overnight services were being “enhanced”.
Mulholland has staged nine meetings on health services issues, in communities he says are talking the same issues with local twists, and the rally was the first of what he expects will be several.
Hawke’s Bay Group director operations David Warrington said the merger of the after hours services of City Medical and The Doctors Napier meant their service began operating from one location at Napier Health, with a new closing time of 8pm (instead of 9pm from March 1, since when had been “bridging the gap” by starting its overnight nurse provided after-hours service an hour early, from 8pm.
From 8am to 8pm, primary and urgent care services are provided in Napier by general practice, he said.
“Health NZ is committed to ensuring our communities have access to sustainable and effective health services, including urgent after-hours care. It is important to clarify the health services available and reassure the Napier community of our ongoing efforts to enhance healthcare services across our region.”
He said the decision announced last week added a nurse prescriber and online support from a doctor, at no charge and seven days a week.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.