Gravitational pull is something that the community served by Kaitaia Hospital knows about. It is now a quarter of a century since that community began fighting to save its hospital, a battle that continued for six or seven years.
The fundamental issue was whether or not it would retain a 24/7 surgical capacity, and while that fight was ultimately lost, it kept much more basic hospital services than others around the country that had been marked for closure, or a reduction to what were described as super clinics.
Millie Srhoj, perhaps the greatest champion of the very Far North since Col Allen Bell, claimed that the battle had been won, but it wasn't really, even if Kaitaia didn't lose as much as had seemed inevitable when the proposal for change was first revealed.
In fact there were six options, none of which represented the status quo, and all of which represented a gross loss of services.
The gravitational pull that Dr Potts recognised would have seen almost all services, including maternity, transferred to Whangarei. In reality many were, but the hospital has continued to function at a level that once seemed unlikely, to a large degree thanks to the emergency helicopter.
So the provision of an entirely new service, never before available in Kaitaia, does indeed represent a huge achievement, for the hospital staff who made the case and stuck to their guns, for the DHB for accepting the validity of that case, and all the way back to the people who protested, called meetings, argued, wrote letters, signed petitions, and simply refused to accept that everything that needed more than a sticking plaster should shift to Whangarei.
Dr Potts made the eminently sensible observation that improving things for patients was what made health services better. Few would disagree with that, but the Northland DHB has not always been seen as acting in accordance with that philosophy.
The common perception was once that hospital services in Northland were planned and provided for the convenience of the medical profession, many of whom were regarded as having a vested interest in centralisation, and long waiting lists, in that their public health role was complemented by private practices.
Opening this cancer treatment unit in Kaitaia represents a huge departure from those days and the rancorous relationship that once existed between the people of the very Far North and the Northland DHB. Perhaps now decentralisation will continue.
It will be thanks to the extraordinarily devoted people who provide hospital services in the very Far North, those with the power to make decisions who now recognise that patients really should come first and that Kaitaia's hospital can play a bigger role than it does without representing any sort of loss for Whangarei, and to all those who fought so stoutly all those years ago for what they believed was fair and sensible.
The silly season
So another election cycle has begun. We know this because idiot ideas are once again being promulgated as the answers to our problems. The further left one goes, and there is really nothing but left these days, the wackier the ideas get.
The traditional left, as usual, reckons the best way out of our general malaise lies in more social welfare, including Labour's brainwave of dealing with child poverty by paying poor parents to manufacture more babies. It is this sort of thinking that makes life on Mars increasingly appealing.
And no credit to the media, starting with TV1's Breakfast duo Jack Tame and Hilary Barry, who rolled their eyes at ACT's David Seymour's assertion that $60 a week will be more than enough to lure some into parenthood, or likely more parenthood.
Tame, Barry and Co clearly have absolutely no idea about how life works outside their privileged circles. Wonder if their programme's audience is still plummeting.
There is even less excuse for some politicians, or would-be politicians. Former Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule, who is now a National Party candidate, is well and truly amongst the frontrunners for this year's doziest idea.
He has reportedly persuaded LGNZ to call for a cat tax, apparently on the understanding that that is what people from one end of the country to the other are calling for. That does not seem likely, but Mr Yule wouldn't be the first person to fantasise about the level of support for their ridiculous ideas.
Not surprisingly the Taxpayers' Union, which is increasingly qualifying itself for appointment in place of our elected government, has spotted the odd flaw in councils demanding that cat owners pay what it says will be $80 just for microchipping every moggie on the premises, plus all the administration and other costs, passing cat bylaws and employing cat rangers.
It reckons such a policy would cost around $56 million a year to implement, even if the dragnet only caught half the country's cats.
It also points out that according to Forest & Bird it is rats, not cats, that are wiping out native bird populations, and wonders, not unreasonably, if Mr Yule, who should be more aware than most of the challenges facing local government these days, genuinely believes that unmicrochipped cats are the biggest problem facing councils.
Don't know about anywhere else, but the Far North District Council for one would be better employed doing something about its district's woeful water supplies, struggling sewerage systems and Third World roads than prowling around at night trying to seize errant felines.
Mind you, it has trouble spotting roaming dogs, which are generally bigger and easier to see than cats, in broad daylight, so it probably wouldn't catch any, but as every responsible dog owner knows, that won't stop it charging like a wounded bull.
Meanwhile one might still hope that the election campaign that we will all have to endure for the next couple of months will throw up some rational, common sense ideas for creating an environment whereby more New Zealanders will be able to take charge of their lives and make their way without relying on a benevolent political party to pay their grocery bill, but don't count on it.
We are almost certainly doomed to the same old same old after September 23, and the best we can do with the genuine fruit loop ideas espoused by some who aspire to a parliamentary sinecure is to regard them as free entertainment.
