Leonie Trubshoe and her 10-year-old basset hound Erle. Video / Andrew Warner
The Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2023. Here’s what made headlines in February
February 6:
Bay of Plenty’s GPs were outnumbered by enrolled patients by more than 1000 to one, but doctors said the ratio could be higher when taking into account that the majority don’t work full-time.
There was an average of 1000 enrolled patients per GP in the Bay of Plenty district, recently released Ministry of Health data revealed.
The data, released at the end of January, recorded primary healthcare enrolments according to the patient’s district of residence and primary health organisation records.
There were 255,789 people enrolled with GP practices in the Te Whatu Ora Bay of Plenty district as of January 31, an increase of 13,470 since December 31 2019.
Within two minutes of Nasib Khan arriving home to his partner and daughter, they were running for safety from a gum tree crashing through their roof.
Khan was at work in Katikati when a friend checking his property called, urging him to come home as the trees were “badly shaking” as Cyclone Gabrielle lashed the region.
As soon as he arrived home, Khan and his wife made a plan to leave but within minutes they heard a “boom” as a tree fell on the house. The house “suddenly moved” and they rushed to get out, he said.
Tenant Nasib Khan and his 3-year-old daughter after a tree fell on their house. Photo / Emma Houpt
February 17
The test between the Black Caps and England at Bay Oval delivered not only the welcome return of cricket for Kiwi fans but also a “buoyant” atmosphere for Tauranga accommodation and hospitality operators after a summer of “setbacks”.
A jubilant crowd — including a Londoner who spent more than four days travelling to Tauranga — gathered under sunny Bay of Plenty skies for the start of the day-night pink ball test, the first of a two-test series between the teams.
The teams wore black armbands to honour the New Zealand victims of the cyclone which cut a path of destruction across the North Island, devastating Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Coromandel Peninsula and Muriwai especially.
Paul Blears had “the rest of my life to look forward to” because he did his bowel cancer screening test.
The 72-year-old Tauranga man was diagnosed with bowel cancer last year but had “absolutely no symptoms”.
Blears was encouraging others to do the screening
His story came as data from Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand showed just over 50 per cent of screening kits sent to eligible Bay of Plenty residents as part of the National Bowel Screening Programme have been returned.
The data showed 425 tests were positive, but a positive result does not necessarily indicate bowel cancer. Positive tests mean further investigation is required, usually by having a colonoscopy.
Twenty-two cancers were detected by colonoscopies and 17 surgeries were completed to remove bowel cancer during that time.
Tauranga man Paul Blears, 72, was diagnosed with bowel cancer last year. Photo / Andrew Warner
February 23
The wife of a Tauranga man who nearly died after being crushed by a falling skip bin described the harrowing ordeal of coming to terms with knowing her husband of 29 years would never be the same again.
The woman had permanent name suppression, as did her husband and eldest son. She read her victim impact statement in the Tauranga District Court as her husband’s former employers were sentenced.
The court heard the worker was critically injured on March 31, 2021, after a skip bin fell on his head and shoulders, crushing his skull and leaving him with serious head and brain injuries.
Lorraine and Robin Horne, owners of Bin Boys BOP Limited, had admitted one charge each of, as business operators, failing to ensure their worker was not put at risk of death or serious injury while operating truck-mounted lifting equipment to empty a skip bin.
Judge Bidois convicted and discharged Lorraine Horne after the judge was told Robin Horne had accepted sole responsibility for the failures. He was fined $250,000 and ordered to pay $100,000 reparation plus legal costs.
A dog that attacked a “gentle, loving” basset hound while out on a walk was voluntarily surrendered to the council by its owners to be put down.
The almost $1900 vet tab was also picked up by the owners of the attacking dog.
The Western Bay of Plenty District Council said the outcome of the dog-on-dog attack was an example of “how these painful incidents can be resolved peacefully”.
Leonie Trubshoe was taking her 10-year-old dog, Erle, for a walk along Rogers Rd beach when suddenly a large black dog “leapt off the back” of a vehicle and charged at the pair, attacking Erle.
Leonie Trubshoe and her 10-year-old basset hound, Erle. Photo / Andrew Warner
February 27
A Waihī Beach resident said a tornado that spiralled into the beach town, damaging homes and cutting power to about 2000 properties, spat all kinds of debris into the sky.
Mark Wright watched two waterspouts merge and then head on to land to form a twister just before 8am.
“I could just see debris and there was just all sorts going on in the sky, and there was just almost like an explosion of debris up in the air. There was just corrugated iron and objects and birds,” he told RNZ.
