For anyone who is used to three square meals a day, you would have to be impressed with the variety and the quality of food that was offered. Our district health board needs to be congratulated on standing up against the Government's cost-cutting measures and demanding that the food served at our local hospital be fresh and local.
Most people who brought young children in to the hospital kept their children under control and they showed respect for those who were ill. Once again there was that 5 per cent element that thought it was their child's right to run through the ward or hop on a wheelchair and go for a ride. When staff chastised them they became absolutely indignant, as if it was the staff member who was out of line. This type of attitude is becoming far too prevalent and the 95 per cent of us need to make a stand.
The biggest gripe I heard was around parking. I was interested in the article by DHB CEO Kevin Snee about the parking issue and I am the first to agree. It is chaotic, unacceptable and something has to be done. Getting staff to change their habits is affordable but why should they suffer more inconvenience by car pooling, catching a bus, walking or cycling? These are nothing more than short-term measures.
Our health professionals, staff, patients and visitors are an integral of our health system and should not be asked to inconvenience themselves. They deserve better. I was made aware of staff that arrived more than an hour before they were due to start just to get a park, visitors who would drive around for more than half an hour and patients who were late or cancelled appointments through not being able to find a carpark.
This issue goes right back to the time when the two local hospitals were merged - no additional parking was added and the numbers through the hospital on a daily basis have now more than doubled.
Every new building/facility has eroded away the car parking. The population of Hawke's Bay has increased as have the demands on our cash-strapped DHB. They do an admirable job in very testing circumstances. Every cent that they can find needs to be spent on health issues and not car parking solutions.
Public hospitals are Crown assets and the car-parking problem lies fairly and squarely in the Government's domain. All local councils should certainly get in behind the issue and put continuous pressure on the Government. Local MPs should have identified it as a local issue because it has an impact on everyone. They should have continually lobbied colleagues to get something done about it.
To date that hasn't happened. So you, the general public, needs to make a real stand and I am more than prepared to be one of the drivers.
Hospital parking is only going to get worse. A structural engineer informed me that it costs about $30,000 per carpark in a multi-storey building.
The $30 million wasted on the flag referendum would have more than adequately funded more than enough carparks. It is all about getting priorities right by putting the needs of citizens first.
This needs a regional effort and regional pressure. I believe it is a problem that should be fixed for the benefit of everyone who needs to use or go to our Hawke's Bay hospital.
The simple solution is money - Government money - now. Start writing and asking the questions, because if we say nothing we will continue to get nothing.
- Malcolm Dixon is a Hastings district councilllor.
- Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz
