Our purpose

Our purpose is to provide a community-led voice to ensure the people of the Upper Clutha have equitable access to the health services they deserve both today and in the future. 

Facilitation
We will help facilitate the acquisition of funding (public, charitable, community or philanthropic) for existing community organisations and/or service providers to lead the implementation of the following community initiatives:

• Development of local capability to deliver selected specialist-level services such as the administering of Avastin injections.

• Establishment of a local health advocate role to support patients with chronic and/or complex cases to navigate the health system.

• Delivery of community care programmes to support and engage community members with dementia, disabilities, and chronic conditions, and to provide respite for their carers.

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Advocacy
We will advocate for the following outcomes:

• establishment of a publicly funded blood collection service in Wānaka

• establishment of a permanent, Wānaka-based 24/7 urgent care service

• increased local access to funded urgent care

• increased funding for local hospital beds, in consultation with local hospitals to ensure the funding is appropriately allocated

• increased local access to publicly funded diagnostic services and equipment

• increased funding for local delivery of mental health services, including telehealth access to consultant psychiatric services

• revision of the National Travel Assistance scheme to meet rural needs and address inequity

• reduction in referral rejections in the southern health region

• delivery of increased local specialist services to meet community needs and reduce travel

• improved management of patient information to enable healthcare providers to do their jobs

• improved communication from Health New Zealand to enable patients to access the healthcare services they need

• increased availability of local dementia care, home-based care and respite care

• provision of additional rooms in Wānaka for healthcare and service providers to deliver their services.

Support

We support the implementation of the recommendations of the following reports: 

• ‘WellSouth Rural Services Review: Southern Region’ (August 2024)

• ‘A Future Capitation Funding Approach’ (July 2022)

• ‘Time for Change | Te Hurihanga’ (June 2021).

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