Letters To The Editor

The informa on and opinions published are not necessarily those of the Malvern News proprietor. The final approval of le ers for print, rests with the editor. Le ers to the Editor should be no more than 200 words in length. Le ers to the Editor won’t be considered for publica on without the writer’s name (given and surname) and area of residence (not address) also being printed. Le ers wri en using a pseudonym, are unable to be published.

The News contacted the

Canterbury District Health

Board to get a response to Graham Gunn’s letter that was published on Friday, June 3rd. To the Editor: The closure of Darfield Hospital was a temporary measure due to the challenges in providing safe staffing during the Covid-19 outbreak. This included aged residential care, which has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. We are experiencing a longer tail for our Omicron outbreak than anticipated, with case numbers, hospitalisations and staff sickness/isolation all still high. We do not have a definite date for the re-opening, as it is dependent on the ongoing demands of Covid-19 and other pressures on our health system, including a nationwide shortage of nurses and other suitably qualified staff. We are also taking this opportunity to have a discussion with our rural communities, on how we might deliver an improved mix of services in these rural areas, that makes the best possible use of our resources and allows some services to be provided closer to home. We are meeting fortnightly with the District Mayors and Friends of the four rural hospitals that have been affected by safe staffing, to update them on our planning. Darfield Hospital has eight beds and these are mainly used for aged residential care. Becky Hickmott, Executive Director of Nursing, Canterbury DHB.

To the Editor: I wish to commend the four brave young women initiating the ‘Wear The Rural’ campaign along with their sponsors. This is a problem that has been building for decades. In addition to normal agricultural production exigencies, such as vagaries of climate, markets, banking and financial challenges, are added the politics of division and envy, carefully nurtured by successive governments, and perfected brilliantly by the present administration. This has multiplied the pressures and isolation faced by rural people who during Covid, earned 83% of this country’s overseas exchange. They were rewarded by a tidal wave of punitive, pusillanimous, administration intensive laws as well as being denigrated and demonised in the media. Rural people involved in production have become a marginalised minority, all too easy to politicise and vilify. Dr Shane Reti, the National Health Spokesperson, has pleaded in vain for Rural Health to be classified with Maori and Pasifika as an at risk group. In Japanese cultures, suicide was seen as the ultimate protest. In the case of Rural New Zealand, to keep on living will prove more powerful. John Oakley, Glenroy.

Min Cookson,

your expert local residential, lifestyle and rural salesperson. Give Min a call for anything real estate. 027 249 5417

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