The decision to close down secondary birthing services at Whakatāne Hospital will put mothers and babies at risk. Not just in Whakatāne, but across the wider Eastern Bay area and up the coast. It means that only low risk births will be supported in Whakatane, with an estimated 300 deliveries a year having to transfer to Tauranga. That’s a long way to go in an emergency. Whānau will have worse outcomes and reduced choices. We cannot allow it to stand.
The closure has already taken place, last week. We are assured it is temporary, and that the service will reopen in 12 to 18 months, once new specialists can be recruited. I find it hard to believe that this will actually happen. My concern is that it will become the victim of a broader push by this government to slash spending in the public health service. This is already happening in other areas of healthcare. Once we have become used to the lack of services in Whakatāne it becomes too easy to just let the restart deadline slide, and keeping sliding, until it just becomes the new normal. Even if that is not what Te Whatu Ora intends right now, without a strong community pushback other priorities will come to the fore as local health bosses grapple with increasing central government demands for savings.
We are told that the service is closing because the hospital has not been able to recruit the specialist staff needed to run it. There has been some internal criticism that they haven’t been actively recruiting, and that the shortage of staff was foreseeable. Could this closure have been avoided? I am not an expert and I know how easy it is to criticise people when you don’t have all the facts. I believe that Te Whatu Ora regional leadership has done the best it could do with what it had. The question for us as a community is how do we make sure that our opposition to the closure is heard, and that we don’t allow it to become a permanent thing? Taking Te Whatu Ora at their word, how can we best support them to ensure that the funding is there to restart when new staff have been recruited?
It is not Council’s job to fix the public health service. We don’t have the expertise, the resources or the mandate. I do think it is council business, however, to talk about the closure of critical local medical services, to advocate for our community and to pressure the government to do better by this sub-region. We are a growing area and right now the Government should be investing in us – in housing, in workforce development, in business support, and yes, in increased medical services. It is not a time to go backwards.
The pressure must come from the community. It is about our willingness to stand up for ourselves. A number of people have said that we need a march to demand the reopening of the service, and after talking to Kat Walsh (who started the petition) and others I am putting my hand up to be the contact point. We need to keep this issue on the table and not allow it to slide into oblivion. A strong show of support from the community will make a huge difference right now, to make sure the issue doesn’t get forgotten. If you are willing to help organise the march, please get in touch. We need a strong team of us to make it a success.
Following a successful march, I think there are a number of other things that the council can do to support the community. It just takes some political leadership and skill. Council is not just about roads and water pipes. Civic leadership, backing our communities and supporting local action on important issues like this are all part of a council’s role.
If you can help organise the march please contact Nandor at <nandor.tanczos@whakatane.govt.nz> or 021 887 011
Published in the Whakatāne Beacon 22/01/25
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