Whanganui Mobile Health Bus boost as partnership grows between WRHN and Bartley Foundation

The Robert Bartley Foundation has strengthened its partnership with the Whanganui Regional Health Network. Pictured are (from left) Alan Mangan, Avon McDonald, Ann Bartley, Sarah Bartley and Judith MacDonald.

Whanganui Regional Health Network will take a more active role in the Waka Hauora Mobile Health Bus.

This comes after the organisation strengthened its relationship with the Robert Bartley Foundation.

Whanganui Regional Health Network (WRHN) chief executive Judith MacDonald said the organisation was excited to continue as a regular provider through the foundation’s bus service.

“This is going back to our roots ... partnering with other agencies to create the groundswell of outcomes together.”

The change means WRHN could handle more of the bus’ logistics and bookings for health providers and community events.

WRHN’s bus services typically involve two registered nurses and a kaiāwhina (helper) from the community.

“I think this won’t be a surprise to communities because it’s, sort of, not a change for them, it’s more of a change in how we organise ourselves,” MacDonald said.

The Robert Bartley Foundation originally donated the bus to the Whanganui District Health Board (now part of Health NZ Te Whatu Ora) as a multi-purpose mobile clinic.

It includes a private treatment room, a spacious hospital bed, storage for medical supplies and a small waiting area.

Foundation chairwoman Sarah Bartley said the bus had delivered free health and cancer screenings, immunisations and other clinical services to patients in the Whanganui region since 2020.

“The bus creates a visual statement when it arrives in our communities, signalling that health professionals and partners are available to meet our people in their backyard,” Bartley said.

Her father, the late Robert Bartley, originally planned to turn it into a mobile cancer clinic.

After discussions with Health NZ, the focus shifted to general healthcare for people and isolated communities in greater Whanganui.

The hospital used it as a vaccination and testing station during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Once that died down, we wanted to get it back to its core purpose about general wellbeing,” Bartley said.

She said Health NZ was the main provider delivering services through the bus but was now using it less.

To maximise the bus’ use and impact, the foundation was now strengthening its partnership with WRHN, Bartley said.

“Our intention is to get the best use out of it. We just want to see it around the community helping out people.

“We’re open to working with other people in the community who can provide free health services. We’re pretty much providing the facility for that to happen.”

Donations would support the foundation’s bus service and help cover its recent purchase of a dedicated car for the Cancer Society.

The car would help transport Whanganui patients to and from chemotherapy in Palmerston North and Wellington, Bartley said.

To donate or find more information, visit the foundation’s website at www.bartleyfoundation.org.

Noam Mānuka Lazarus is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle.