Eltham Health Centre: community and care

IT'S been a long road for the Eltham Health Centre in the last few years, but finally the community has a facility that it can be truly proud of.
With the finishing touches well and truly completed at the medical centre, the Eltham Health Trust is enjoying being able to sit back and really enjoy all their hard work; this centre having been a labour of love for the last seven years.
A seven-year itch
"Everything started in November 2003," says Alison Sulzberger, Treasurer of the Eltham Health Trust.
"That's when we held an initial public meeting called by concerned members of the community and Doctor Alan Furniss himself."
The purpose of the meeting was to highlight the crisis facing primary healthcare in New Zealand. At the time, rural general practices such as Eltham were at serious risk of closure.
"Young New Zealand medical graduates were moving away from general practice as a career option, making it extremely difficult to attract GPs into rural areas like ours.
"It was well recognised that a major stumbling block to entering general practice was the potential financial outlay young doctors faced if they wanted to develop their own practices; you know, purchasing buildings, leases, appropriate medical equipment, all those kinds of things."
Although at the time of the 2003 meeting, Eltham didn't face an immediate crisis as Dr Furniss was committed to staying, the town decided it needed to be ready to financially assist and support an incoming doctor, should Dr Furniss choose to leave.
"From the initial public meeting, a working committee was appointed to investigate what was required to enable Eltham to retain doctor services.
"Through consultation with a wide range of experts, it was decided that the best course of action was to form the legal entity of a Charitable Trust that would operate and purchase the Eltham Health Centre.
"At a further public meeting held in March 2004, members of the working committee were endorsed as trustees and the new trust was formed."
Team realising a dream
In order for the community to purchase the medical centre, fundraising strategies had to be implemented.
Owing to the relatively huge amount of money that was needed, it seemed the only way to do it was by approaching large community trusts.
"The Taranaki Electricity Trust and the TSB Community Trust were willing to help us out, but they insisted that the Eltham community raise a third of what was necessary by itself. This meant we had to find $60,000."
Although such a large target seemed frighteningly difficult at the time, in true small-town style, locals really got behind fundraising efforts, making their own donations at the Eltham branch of the TSB Bank, as well as donating items for raffles, and attending organised events.
Schools and community groups also got behind it all, doing what they could to help. As an example, the Eltham Kindergarten held a special coin trail.
Local business also made sizeable donations for the cause, including $5000 from Uhlenberg Haulage, $20,000 from the Eltham Vet Service and $15,000 from Riverlands.
This came among a whole range of other gratefully received donations and, by the end of all the years of fundraising the community had exceeded its $60K target by some $20,000. "This enabled the TSB Community Trust and TET applications to be accepted, which meant that the purchase of the buildings housing the Eltham Health Centre was finally completed on October 6, 2006.
"In November 2007, we purchased the chattels, with further donations allowing us to upgrade some of the existing medical equipment."
More than bricks and mortar
While finally having the medical centre in local possession was a great achievement, it didn't take long for the Eltham Health Trust to realise that the facility needed work to keep it up to scratch.
"In late 2008, we embarked on major upgrading work," says Gordon Lawson, chair of the Eltham Health Trust.
"Medical facility compliance requirements changed and, in order to operate the best practice for our community, we had to build in a number of new features."
Internally, it was the waiting room that presented the biggest need for change.
"The new regulations stipulated that there needed to be a separate area in which to keep the children's toys. These rules had been changed because people in waiting rooms had been tripping over untidy toys and injuring themselves."
Because where there are toys, there are children, the designer, Rangiwahia Architectural Design, decided to build a separate glass booth (the crèche) just for the kiddies and their playthings.
"Inside is clearly visible from reception and the waiting room, and toys aren't a hazard anymore."
To tone in with the new crèche, the waiting room itself was remodelled in order to make it a much more open and attractive area for waiting patients.
Technologically, a new computer system has also been installed and, thanks to the generosity of the Red Cross, new purpose-built examination beds have been put in place.
"We've done a lot of work on the main entranceway; that's where people will noticed the biggest difference."
The work to close-in the front entrance of the building was started late 2008 and finished early 2009; TET assisted with this expense by donating a further $30K to the centre.
"We now have an inbuilt wheelchair ramp, and new self-opening doors which make access easier for everybody."
Onwards, upwards
When the trust set out on their journey to buy, manage and maintain the Eltham Health Centre, they had hoped that eventually the facility would eventually fund itself. Adding to the success of the revamp is the knowledge that in fact, this has happened, meaning everybody has a chance to breathe a little.
"We always wanted the trust to be able to fund itself, so we didn't have
to keep putting our hands out to the public.
"With rents received from all three tenants - the Doctor, Moss, Rocard and Smith pharmacy and NZ Post, we're fortunate not to have to worry about covering our costs.
"It's taken a little while to get into this position, so we're doing all we can to make sure we stay here."
To round off the entire project, and let the community know where everything has finally got to, a special public meeting and presentation will be held in the Eltham Town Hall at 7pm on July 28. To this event, the public are cordially invited.
"We now have confidence that Eltham's an attractive place for any new doctor to set up his or her practice in future," says Gordon.