Health reform continues

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 297, 1 August 1989, Page 1

Health reform continues

Reform of Waimarino's health care and hospital service by the Wanganui Area Health Board will continue, despije the impending amalgamation of the board with Manawatu. Community services manager Margot Mains said she is continuing with the review process and is to meet with hospital staff, the hospital manager, the Waimarino Health Watch Committee and any other group that wish to express their views on ways to reform this area's rural health services. Mrs Mains said she will then formulate a reform proposal which will be presented to the Waimarino at a public meeting, if that is what the people want. She said the proposal should be ready within the next few months and before the new health board elections in October. She said the Wanganui Area Health Board plans to have in place a service that is responsive to rural people's needs, by the time the new board comes into being in December. She said she could not predict what the new board would do in regard to rural health care and the hospital but that she believed

if there was a service in place that is relevant and is based on needs rather than what happens to be already here, then the new board would be less likely to interfere with the service. She said the WAHB is committed to the rural health centre plan, that it is looking to have four centres in the board's area up and running, and that they are now concentrating on the Waimarino service. She said the view of New Zealand Medical Association Wanganui division spokesman Dr Roger Williams, who said rural hospitals would probably close once the new board is formed, is not the view of the WAHB. She said it seems he believes that rural hospitals are not needed but that the WAHB has found that at least some beds, such as maternity beds and short-stay beds, are needed. At last week's council meeting Waimarino Mayor Garrick Workman expressed disappointment at Dr William's statement, saying it had fueled doubt among Waimarino people about the future of their health services.