Napier healthcare services in the spotlight at public meeting

A proposal to end face-to-face emergency overnight health services in Napier has sparked interest in a public meeting to be held on Thursday to discuss concerns about “the state of the New Zealand health system”.

Similar to one held in Palmerston North on Tuesday, speakers at the meeting in St Paul’s Presbyterian Church will include patients, nurses and specialists, but organisers say they are expecting at least one MP from Wellington and Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise and several of her council.

Opposition Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said she would be attending, saying she’s aware “Napier has particular issues with overnight services” and while she’s never been opposed to “telehealth” consultation, it’s not enough for a city of the size of Napier.

Malcolm Mulholland, chairman of meeting organisers Patient Voice Aotearoa, said invitations had been issued to the Government’s Napier and Tukituki MPs, who had replied with apologies for not being able to attend.

The Napier Health Centre is in the middle of a Health NZ shake up around overnight care. Photo / Doug Laing

Napier MP Katie Nimon told Hawke’s Bay Today a representative for her would be present taking notes.

Medical services providers City Medical, operating out of the Napier Health Centre, in Wellesley Rd, have merged after-hours services with practitioner-own The Doctors on the health centre site, ending at 8pm.

Under a proposal seen by Hawke’s Bay Today, but yet to be confirmed, urgent services would be by phone-line “telehealth” consultation, or a trip to the Fallen Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Hastings.

Patient advocacy groups and medical practitioners have been concerned about hospital staffing shortages and other issues throughout the country, and say the situation with the urgent care overnight – which government agency Health NZ Te Whatu Ora had noted was experiencing low overnight patient numbers – highlights some of the problems.

They say the only alternatives are not what was promised when the hilltop Napier Hospital closed more than 25 years ago, and the changes now don’t reflect the precarious position of Napier, as seen in Cyclone Gabrielle when, bounded by the sea and rivers, had access by land cut-off for close to a week.

Mulholland said similar meetings in the Wellington region and Wairarapa had raised all of the concerns, but issues of practitioner shortages seemed to be even more acute in Napier and Palmerston North.

He said the issues in Napier are “not just those of Napier - a city of 67,000 population, without a hospital”, in that fewer services in Napier mean more pressure on urgent care at the hospital in Hastings.

The meeting on Thursday at the church on the corner of Tennyson and Dalton streets, starts at 7pm.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.