\u201cThe cost of a GP is a killer for a lot of people,\u201d said Te Ara Waiora service manager Shelly Smith.<\/p>\n
Waipukurau resident Macy Te Whaiti, 24, is pregnant with her third child and describes Te Ara Waiora as a \u201clifesaver\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very fearful about how much it is going to cost for myself, let alone my kids, as times get tougher for everybody and as resources get limited more and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s scary, it\u2019s very scary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Macy Te Whaiti, 24, is expecting her third child and is grateful for the service of the free kaupapa M\u0101ori hauora clinic. Photo \/ RNZ, Alexa Cook<\/p>\n
The nurse-led service is funded by Te Whatu Ora and has a clinic in Flaxmere and Waipukurau. Waipukurau currently has five registered nurses, a health coach, health promoter, two He Oranga kaimahi and two admin staff. The nurses regularly travel to rural areas for mobile clinics and visit people at home when needed.<\/p>\n
But to keep up with the surge in patients, the clinic is trying to recruit two more local nurses.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to do what you can with what you\u2019ve got, but the community are calling out for more and we do what we can to meet it,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n
Registered nurse Tina Carrell told RNZ it had been a very busy few months at the clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of our clients … can\u2019t afford to get into Hastings to the doctor where they really should be seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely has [worsened] over this winter. One week I saw 50 people in three days,\u201d said registered nurse Tina Carrell.<\/p>\n
The free kaupapa M\u0101ori hauora clinic is about so much more than seeing to patients\u2019 physical needs. Nurses also have a k\u014drero with people about wider issues impacting them, such as living situations and mental health.<\/p>\n
Carrell worries about how people are coping with the cost-of-living crisis, and said in the current economic climate, people are often delaying treatment for serious health concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the cost of going to a doctor, or they\u2019re unable to get transport … a lot of people are leaving conditions late to get treatment. Therefore the treatment is more for a referral to a hospital,\u201d said Carrell.<\/p>\n
A registered nurse herself, Smith would love to see more support for free walk-in healthcare clinics and the wider healthcare system.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody works really hard, they make the best of it, but it\u2019s failing despite how hard everyone is working … so that needs looking at,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Macy Te Whaiti having her temperature checked by registered nurse Tina Carrell. Photo \/ RNZ, Alexa Cook<\/p>\n
With her household bills constantly climbing, Te Whaiti told RNZ it was getting harder and harder to pay them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks … I get emotional about it. I am lucky enough to have their dad as someone who is very very supportive and will do whatever it takes to put food on the table and a roof over their head.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it saddens me because we struggle … to put food on the table and what meals to come up with and obviously as parents when it comes down to it, your kids eat first, you make sure your kids have enough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But Te Whaiti is concerned for the growing number of people who she knows are worse off.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo think of those wh\u0101nau that don\u2019t have that, it really hurts … it\u2019s a big mamae.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t escape seeing it, especially living in Hawke\u2019s Bay, or anywhere in New Zealand really. It scares me about what the next even two years are going to be like,\u201d said Te Whaiti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe cost of a GP is a killer for a lot of people,\u201d said Te Ara Waiora service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4193,806,1561,536,1853,27056,4194,9947,5988,4975,1976,134,78,33995,2720,111,43,139,69,2553,9350],"class_list":["post-36780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alexa","tag-as","tag-bay","tag-care","tag-central","tag-clinic","tag-cook","tag-delay","tag-families","tag-free","tag-hawkes","tag-health","tag-in","tag-kaupapa","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-stretched","tag-vital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}