Whanganui Regional Health Network communications co-ordinator Karen Veldhoen and CBAC clinical lead Helen Connole at the assessment centre pop-up in Trafalgar Square. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui Regional Health Network communications co-ordinator Karen Veldhoen and CBAC clinical lead Helen Connole at the assessment centre pop-up in Trafalgar Square. Photo / Bevan Conley
More than 50 people without Covid-19 symptoms turned up to the Whanganui Regional Health Network's pop-up testing centre in Trafalgar Square yesterday.
A team dressed in PPE was located in an empty shop inside the shopping centre and welcomed anyone who was asymptomatic to be swabbed at the pop-up community-based assessment centre (CBAC).
Whanganui Regional Health Network (WRHN) chief executive Judith MacDonald said over the four-hour period more than 50 people were swabbed, with most aged between 65 and 70.
She said 23 of those people also received the flu vaccine.
"They were all first-timers and people we haven't been able to reach yet so it was very pleasing," MacDonald said.
"We did reach out to Māori, those from a low-income household and older people who have probably not had the opportunity to receive the education and information around the virus, so that was a tick for one of our objectives."
The decision was made to operate the pop-up after the Ministry of Health requested an increase in community testing nationwide.
MacDonald believed they achieved this yesterday as the numbers were "very pleasing".
However, she said although it was worth the effort, she does not think WRHN will run another CBAC there.
"I did get a call of concern about us being in the mall and I made the comment that this is the new normal and I know it's comforting for communities to see us out there and being so bold but I think we're going to have to get used to this kind of approach."
She said asymptomatic people had been encouraged to get tested there as it would have been inappropriate to swab people who did have symptoms in a mall.
"It's not the environment, you don't do it inside a shopping mall, so anyone with symptoms was asked to go to the CBAC [at the hospital] but these people [who were swabbed], they were probably no risk at all. They were well and had no symptoms."
She said the pop-up's signs made it clear that the centre was for asymptomatic people, and no one had to be redirected to the hospital's CBAC.
MacDonald said earlier this week her team asked neighbouring shop owners individually if they were happy with the CBAC being there.
"I did question if the location was quite close to the food mall and how that was going to be seen perhaps culturally, but I think the bottom line was it was more about awareness and more about the fact that we are going to pop up in different places within our community. And the intent is to keep them safe and to ensure we reach out to people that don't typically make themselves come forward and give them an opportunity to be swabbed."
She said WRHN was able to achieve its objective of engaging more with the community through the pop-up.
The Central CBAC at Whanganui Hospital is operating Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 1pm.
