Health shuttle funded for one year
From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Funding to run the Buller health shuttle has been granted for one year.
The shuttle was provided by the Buller branch of the Red Cross from 2012, to transport people 100 kilometres from Westport to Greymouth for medical appointments.
It operated with support from Buller REAP, which co-ordinated patient requested bookings.
"The Red Cross are transitioning away from providing this and similar community transport that they have run throughout the country; the Buller service being the last in the process," a planning and funding update to the West Coast DHB advisory group said this week.
The Buller service was taken on by St John at the beginning of this month and is now known as the Kawatiri Health Shuttle.
"The service has been invaluable to those people who have faced transport issues over the years, and with St John now picking up service provision this is very much welcomed."
The Kawatiri service was funded for one year at this stage, based on Ministry of Health advice given to the board based on the transition to the new health system, DHB staffer Ben Hingston said.
They were "confident" the service would be sustainable beyond the transition period.
St John already operates a similar service in the Grey district and between Hokitika and Greymouth.
Board member Anita Halsall-Quinlan, of Westport, said it appeared the service was being run based on staff availability and asked if there were set days and times it would be available so it retained a broad reach into the community.
Hingston said St John would try to match accessibility to the shuttle with patient appointment times, "but there are no set times".
Board member Helen Gillespie noted it would be reliant on St John being able to co-ordinate volunteer drivers and Hingston said it would be up to that organisation to facilitate the availability of volunteer drivers.
The service would continue to operate at no cost to passengers.
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Meanwhile, increased funding has enabled the West Coast District Health Board to double capacity of the Poutini Waiora-led kaupapa Maori Well Child Tamariki Ora services.
A report to the board's advisory group this week said increased funding had meant it would be able to increase staffing from a 0.5 full time equivalent position to almost fulltime, from the beginning of next month.
"The increase in funding will contribute to improved equity of access to kaupapa Maori services for whanau living across the West Coast."
The previous funding level had limited Poutini Waiora's ability to provide a comprehensive service to whanau.
It was expected the additional staffing would improve Poutini Waiora's capacity to deliver Kaupapa Maori Well Child Tamariki Ora services to more whanau and enable "more intensive support" to those already engaged in the service.
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Public health funded 'health improvement practitioners' and health coaches will be soon starting work at medical practices in Hokitika and Greymouth.
A report to this week's DHB advisory group said the West Coast Primary Health Organisation's first round of recruitment for the Integrated General Practice Primary Mental Health and Addictions Service had been successful enough to cover practices in the two towns.
Practitioners and coaches would work as part of general practice teams providing people with "immediate support and tools" for wellbeing.
The first practitioner and coach began work at the Westland Medical Centre on May 23.
Additional practitioners would be joining Coastal Health and the Te Nikau Health Centre in Greymouth on completion of their training in July and August.
Recruitment had commenced for the role in Buller.
Poll: Is it rude to talk on the phone on a bus?
Buses can be a relaxing way to get home if you have a seat and enough space. However, it can be off-putting when someone is taking a phone call next to you.
Do you think it's inconsiderate for people to have lengthy phone calls on a bus? Vote in the poll, and add your comments below.
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64.6% Yes
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32.8% No
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2.6% Other - I'll share below
Horse rider pleads for support to keep them safe on roads
A nationwide campaign to have horse-riders officially recognised as vulnerable road users has been offered supported by the West Coast’s Regional Transport committee.
The committee heard a presentation this month from equestrian safety advocate Julia McLean, who recently took a petition to Parliament on behalf of riding associations across the country.
The petition, signed by close to 9000 people, asks the government to recognise the vulnerability of horse riders in transport legislation.
“Currently we sit in the ‘other road user’ category and that gives no benefits whatsoever and most critically we are not included in education or road safety-messaging,” McLean said.
Horse-riders were continually dealing with reckless and dangerous behaviour by motorists, she told the committee.
“We get reports from our rider groups of horses being killed: there was one in Reefton, and another in Ruatoki; just two weeks ago a horse was hit and killed by a truck and the rider was taken to hospital."
Riders were also put at risk by aggressive drivers tooting their horns, winding down their windows and shouting, and passing at speed and too closely, she told the committee.
But unlike accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, such incidents involving horses were not captured in the statistics.
When she had asked NZTA for data, said said all it could tell her was that it had issued 13 infringements in 13 years, for failing to take care around a ridden animal or stock.
“When someone comes so close they touch your stirrup, or they hoot their horn as they go past ... it’s the abuse - it’s everywhere."
In a case down south, a truck driver refused to slow down despite hand signals and the rider fell off just in front of him, she said.
She had asked the road safety director for NZ Police to look at providing a ‘tick-box’ for horse-riders in incident reports, Ms McLean said.
“It’s a small, low-cost measure that would allow us to have some proper data, an informed understanding of what’s happening out there on the roads, and in turn some targeted road safety messaging.”
She was motivated to become a safety advocate by her own experience at the age of 25, when she fractured her skull in a near-fatal riding accident on a Kaiapoi road.
“I lost all memory of my childhood; my sense of taste and smell is gone forever. I was in a coma for week, I lost my career and it’s taken me 16 years to fully recover,” she told LDR.
Her accident had not been caused by a car: her horse had shied and thrown her when a piece of paper on the verge moved suddenly in the wind.
But the incident was a grim reminder of what could happen if a horse were startled, she said.
The UK and Australia had recently changed their road codes to give drivers explicit instructions on passing horses.
“It needs to be explicit. We can’t assume people just get it anymore. Common sense is not a thing. We actually have to tell people what we require, to pass a horse wide and slow - wide is two metres.”
A total of 37 organisations were now endorsing her campaign, including police, trucking companies, pony clubs and 10 other regional councils, McLean told the committee.
Transport Committee chairperson Peter Ewen was supportive of Ms McLeans safety campaign.
“In rural New Zealand we have a lot of narrow roads, and we do have riders on them – I would like to think that courtesy is given to those riders."
Regional council chairperson Peter Haddock said he sympathised with the cause but had reservations about riders on state highways.
“I would encourage it on low volume council roads but would struggle to support riding on highways where you’ve got traffic following closely behind.
“It’s difficult to find you suddenly have a horse in front of you and slowly pass it and go from 100kphs to 10kphs. It’s a dangerous situation."
McLean said horse riders did not want to ride on highways, and accidents were happening on 50kph local roads.
She appealed to West Coast mayors and chairs present to consider horse riders when they built shared pathways like cycle trails.
“We don’t need a hard surface, just a bit of dirt or grass at the side.”
The Transport Committee agreed to draft a letter to the national transport authorities, endorsing McLean’s safety campaign but stating its reservations about horses on highways.
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