Health service pulse

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 387, 21 May 1991, Page 5

Health service pulse

By Dennis Dwyer, Communications Manager, Manawatu-Wanganui Area Health Board Enid Windle has a job of many parts at the Waimarino Health Centre. She provides clerical services and is receptionist, telephonist and typist. The clerical services include handling the mail, photocopying and faxing. Enid does the clerical work for admissions and discharges from the Health Centre, takes the bookings for the outpatient clinics and the

bookings for x-rays, and types the x-ray reports. Keeping the medical records is also her responsibility. Along with the other health centre staff, she has to sign a statutory declaration of confidentiality of information. Office hours for the health centre are 8.30 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday to Friday. Don't hang up if Enid or another staff member answers "Waimarino Health Centre" when you phone- for many months it has not been a hospital but a health centre, reflecting

the many services provided. Asthma Educator Maureen Hall is the community asthma educator for the region from Waiouru south to Bulls and from the West Coast as far as the Waitotara River. She has a vital role helping in the treatment, care and education of people with asthma. "There is still widespread belief," she says, " that asthma is in the mind, but it is a very real illness that affects people's breathing. "If you see someone with asthma, help the

person find their blue inhaler." Maureen hates the words "asthma sufferer". She says that if someone with asthma learns all they can about their asthma and has a good action plan, they can lead an almost normal life. Amongst the places she visits are 97 schools, where she gives basic education on asthma and checks inhaler techniques. "People with asthma must not get complacent about their illness," she says. "They have to continue to manage their asthma correctly."