two letters <\/a>raising concerns about the hospital\u2019s staffing crisis.<\/p>\nThe first, sent in 2024 to then-Health Minister Dr Shane Reti, claimed the hospital was on the \u201cbrink of collapse\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 2025, a second letter was sent to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Brown saying Emergency Department patients might have to be flown to other hospitals unless there was help from the Government. <\/p>\n
At last week\u2019s public health meeting, also attended by East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick, Brown said waitlists had been one of the region\u2019s biggest challenges. <\/p>\n
\u201cWaitlists ballooned under the previous Government for people waiting to be seen for treatment, particularly elective surgery, so we\u2019re seeing some really good signs with those waitlists coming down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Brown said they were strengthening the resilience of Gisborne Hospital with new upgrades to the electrical system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re putting in [a] major new upgrade to the electrical systems feeding the hospital with power, and also putting a brand-new backup generator system in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a community which obviously resilience is \u2026 probably the word that rolls off the tongue with recent events like the cyclones. So strengthening the resilience of that hospital is critical to enabling that hospital to respond in times of need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirkpatrick said sometimes it felt like you were the \u201clast cab off the rank\u201d in far regions like Gisborne.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is to make sure that the issues here, the health inequities and the health challenges, are pushed up the chain to make sure that we\u2019re not forgotten.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s making sure we put the money in the right places and making sure that we are delivering services and programmes that meet the needs of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirkpatrick said access to healthcare had been the main issue in Tair\u0101whiti.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to get to a doctor or to get urgent after-hours care or to get to hospital and specialist appointments. There\u2019s a cost to all of that that is often really challenging for people in this region … we are very high on the deprivation index in this part of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stats NZ reported 2023 census findings that found 34.1% of people in the Gisborne district living in deprivation meet the criteria for the highest deprivation category. <\/p>\n
Deprivation is ranked from a 1-10 decile scale, and based off factors such as income, employment, home ownership and living conditions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really the biggest issue and from a funding perspective it\u2019s always tricky when you\u2019re a long way from where the decisions are made,\u201d Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n
She felt they had not done \u201ctoo badly\u201d pushing Gisborne\u2019s problems up the chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always challenges here and there\u2019s always more to do, but, you know, we started the Ng\u0101ti Porou health Puhi Kai-ti after-hours and urgent care, which is doing an amazing job.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we have put this investment into the hospital and into the mental health unit, so there is a lot of work being done, and there\u2019s definitely more to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of this year we\u2019ll have a 10% vacancy rate \u2026 that is a phenomenal change and the difference that will make to local healthcare is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, Health NZ reported it was 37% as of February last year. Gisborne senior doctors sent two letters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1443,6256,7500,7061,3528,28157,5346,38403,71,12506,134,527,2241,3274,6722,111,139,69,19257,312,5843,29023,242092],"class_list":["post-481675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-about","tag-brown","tag-december","tag-doctor","tag-doctors","tag-dropped","tag-expected","tag-falling","tag-from","tag-gisborne","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-hospitals","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rate","tag-says","tag-senior","tag-simeon","tag-vacancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481675","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=481675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}