Identity Koro Mullins died during heart op weeks after going to ED with chest pain

Koropiko "Koro" Mullins was a beloved shearing identity, husband, father to four and grandfather to 17. Photo / Supplied

The widow of shearing identity Koro Mullins has decried “conveyor belt care” and says his inquest has heard “truly horrifying things” about the health system.

Mavis Mullins today gave an impassioned tribute to her late husband in the Wellington Coroner’s Court on the final day of a six-day hearing into his death.

“At the beginning of this journey it was all about Koro, about restoring his mana, making clear his hard-wired desire to live and to be loved,” she said.

But as the inquest progressed, it also became about other people, she said.

“Now it’s more about them. It’s about who is the next Koro.”

Mullins died on September 16, 2019, during a procedure at Wellington Hospital to clear clogged coronary arteries.

The inquest has been told that an air bubble somehow got into a line into one of Mullins’ arteries.

Mullins had just turned 65 and has been described as a strong, physical man who was active in the farming industry and Dannevirke community.

Mavis Mullins said he was her husband and best friend, a father and grandfather, a breadwinner and an “anchor” to the family.

“All that we’ve ever asked for as a whānau is the truth. As painful and ugly as it might have been, it’s what we actually need for closure,” she said.

“But we’ve heard things about our health system that are truly horrifying, and should not happen. Nor should they be normalised and nor should they be accepted.

“We acknowledge the highly skilled people working in those tightly stressed, under-resourced environments.

“They are just doing the best they can to make it work – working in a system that is so focused on efficiencies, it is prepared to forget about the people, the communities, the families.”

Mavis and Koro Mullins (top right) in action during shearing championships in Dannevirke in 2018. Photo / NZME

She described this as “conveyor-belt care to drive efficiencies”.

She said the inquest had heard that clinicians were made to “deform” their processes to exclude patients from being admitted.

“That is appalling – window-dressing the numbers, while ignoring the hidden, unmet needs in our communities.”

One of the issues heard at the inquest was why Mullins was not admitted when first presenting with chest pain at Palmerston North Hospital almost four weeks before he died, under the hospital’s Accelerated Diagnostic Chest Pain Pathway.

Mavis Mullins said she now understood from the evidence that the accelerated pathway “was a directive from the Ministry of Health without appropriately attached resources”, and did not actually exist.

Coroner Brigitte Windley reserved her decision at the close of evidence and called for counsels’ submissions and recommendations by January 27.

Koro and Mavis Mullins ran Paewai Mullins Shearing in Dannevirke for many years. Koro was a top-flight competitive shearer and a commentator for the Golden Shears.

He also served for nine years on Tararua District Council.