Supporting whānau: Two days before lockdown Tūwharetoa secures mobile eftpos

ENABLING SICK AND ELDERLY TO STAY HOME: Tūwharetoa Health Charitable Trust superstars make a home delivery.

Some fast thinking by an iwi health service secured a mobile eftpos machine less than 48 hours before the whole country went into lockdown.

Supporting whānau was the motivation behind Tūwharetoa Health Charitable Trust (THCT) chief executive officer Willow Salvador ordering a mobile eftpos machine from the bank.

"As soon as we heard about the lockdown we contacted our bank to try and get a mobile eftpos machine. We wanted to be able to help our sick and elderly to stay home," said Ms Salvador.

The charitable trust offers a health service to all those living in the Tūwharetoa rohe, including the Taupō and Tūrangi areas. Ms Salvador says the service has highly trained medical workforce where it is normal practice to carry out infectious disease protocol.

"We thought, we have the staff trained to do this, let's see if we can help people to stay home during the pandemic."

On Tuesday, they had their first customer, and since then have made 20 home deliveries.

THCT holds accounts at the local supermarkets and pharmacies and pays for the goods on behalf, and then when the goods are delivered the receiver pays THCT with the mobile eftpos machine.

"It's about working smart, we want to keep our team safe. We do just a few trips to each place each day," said Ms Salvador.

She says they have a really good conversation with the client beforehand, as to whether they have Covid-19 symptoms and both parties follow strict hand washing protocol.

Ms Salvador said the service is offered to anyone living in the Taupō or Tūrangi areas, along with all the other services offered by Tūwharetoa Health Charitable Trust.

"The vision is to provide a service for all, not just those of Tūwharetoa descent. We are still offering most of our services, even under these new circumstances."

The uptake of flu vaccines in the Tūrangi area this year has been exceptionally high, with more vaccines needed to meet the demand. Ms Salvador said there had been a hold-up with the distribution around New Zealand.

"Last year 500 people received the flu vaccine. This year we have already exceeded that. We will be giving out flu vaccines for the next two months," said Ms Salvador.

She say the phones have been ringing off the hook and Tūwharetoa Health has been very busy looking after whānau.