Health cuts protesters marching to Wanganui

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 600, 22 August 1995, Page 1

Health cuts protesters marching to Wanganui

Marching down the Parapara Highway to Wanganui on Thursday and Friday this week will be a group of people protesting at the health service cuts in the W aimarino and Wanganui. The group calls for anyone who is looking for a way to express their opposition to the cuts to join the march, for all or just part of it. The march is organised by a group known as The Health Action Wanganui and District. The organisations supporting the group include the CTU, PSA and the NZNA. Dr Chris Cresswell, a house surgeon with Good Health Wanganui, is one of the

co-ordinators of the march. He said that the grievances are: □ Good Health Wanganui Wanganui are to lose a quarter of the staff; □ A large decrease of all current services; □ The inability (as is the national recommendation), to increase the number of colpolscopies - a follow-up test for abnormal smears (gynaecology problems) as a result of decreasing staff; □ Appointments for eye festing for children particularly eye squinting problems will have a longer waiting list; Turn to Page 3

Health cuts protesters marching to Wanganui

FROM PAGE 1 □ All waiting lists continuing to increase; □ People having to go private and health insurance premiums increasing as a result; □ For those who cannot afford to go private, a very long wait; □ Rural and out-lying areas having longer distances to travel for basic medical and nursing care; □ Road closures not taken into account when restructuring; .□ Re-organising families and friends, if and or, when relatives need to be away in Wanganui or Taihape in hospital for long periods, when they could have been nursed at a local hospital.

It is expected that about 20 people will begin the march from Raetihi on Thursday, which will leave from the

Raetihi Motor Camp at 8.30am, 24 August (this week). Thegroup is expected to arrive in Wanganui on 26 August, staying at Otoko Marae on the way. They will join the main march in Wanganui and march from the middle of the city to the Wanganui base hospital. Vans and buses will accompany the marchers and ferry those who don't want to walk all the way. The usual supplies including first aid will be carried. Anyone is welcome to join the march, Dr Cresswell said the more people from the Waimarino district the better. People can contact Dr Cresswell op 06-348-1234, or just turn up on the day.