Families Consider Leaving Area Due To Lack Of Access To Healthcare

Families are considering leaving Buller due to a lack of access to healthcare services, Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland says.

Mulholland and his father, George Mulholland, delivered a petition to Parliament today calling on the government to urgently fix the staffing shortages at Buller Hospital.

It reads: "That the House of Representatives urgently address the issues surrounding the unsatisfactory delivery of health services to the community of Buller by Health New Zealand West Coast due to an insufficient workforce."

The petition highlights a range of issues the community is dealing with, including the hospital being closed due to staffing shortages, that there is only one rescue helicopter to service the entire West Coast and the only St John Ambulance stationed in Westport is often used to transfer patients to Greymouth, leaving Buller with no ambulance.

Malcolm Mulholland referenced the hospital closures saying "when people need emergency services, they're at sixes and sevens."

"They can't turn up to their local hospital to get the care that they need."

The patient advocate said people are "extremely worried."

"To the point where some families are talking about whether or not they can stay there, because in their time of need, they don't know whether or not the hospital is going to be open or shut."

And he knows of people looking to shift back to the Coast, but "because of their concerns around healthcare, they're not prepared to make the move."

Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland (left) and his father George Mulholland deivers a petition to Parliament today calling on the Government to urgently fix the staffing shortages at Buller Hospital. Photo: RNZ / Lillian Hanly

The petition also points to the serious incident review currently being conducted by Health New Zealand into the death of Leo Lozano.

Health New Zealand West Coast is investigating the death of the Filipino man in his 40s in mid-July, but the hospital won't confirm what the staffing situation was that night, or whether doctors were on call.

Mulholland said his major concern was that Lozano's widow, Liselie Lozano, had not received any correspondence from Health NZ since the night of his death, or from anybody on the West Coast.

"So the lack of communication with that family is of extreme concern."

Mulholland said the Minister should be getting involved and suggested he call Margie Apa, the CEO of Health NZ, to find out what's going on.

The Minister of Health said in response he expects Health NZ to make appropriate contact with those that are affected, and "there'll be a timeliness and there'll be a correct process to do that."

"I'll have a discussion with Health NZ and encourage them to make appropriate approaches to family."

Minister Shane Reti also confirmed the urgent review will be complete roughly three months from when it started at the beginning of August.

On the length of the review, Reti said ideally it would come back sooner, and any urgent matters that come up will be addressed at the time.

Reti said he won't pre-empt the results of the review but says Health NZ has indicated they did have staff on at the time.

Reti acknowledged his ambition would be to have more staff on in all areas of the hospital, but indicated for now at Buller Hospital they were "going to maintain the settings as they currently are."

The minister was invited to the petition handover but did not attend due to "scheduled conflicts", and National's Maureen Pugh sent her apologies.

When asked if their lack of a resposne was a concern, Mulholland said it was.

"I would hope that they would sit up and listen. I know that the folks of Buller and Westport are really keen to engage with the politicians to try and find solutions."

Labour's health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall accepted the petition.

Labour's health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall, George Mulholland, Labour MP Greg O'Connor and Malcolm Mulholland. Photo: RNZ / Lillian Hanly

She said the minister needed to hear the people of Buller were concerned about their access to health services because their hospital was not fully staffed.

"[The minister] needs to release the restrictions on staffing, the hiring freeze on nurses, so that the hospital can be open all the time.

"You can have the best facility in the world, but if it's not staffed, no one's able to help you when you're in your time of need, and it's a massive loss of access to health care to rural people."

"We hired over 2000 nurses, and we left recruitment open. Shutting recruitment now when these hospitals are understaffed, means that the community will suffer a loss of service permanently.

The petition has been signed by 3115 people, including from the Buller communities of Karamea, Seddonville, Granity, Waimangaroa, Westport, Reefton and Punakaiki.