A Medical Elective in New Zealand – Kia Ora! Home away from home
Twenty-four hours of flying brought me to the geographical antithesis of England, New Zealand. Yet interestingly, British colonisation renders the country possibly even more familiar than some places only a few hours away in Europe. I even found a Newcastle University graduate on the paediatrics team I joined. By Holly Blair (06-08)
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I would like to thank the ONA for their generous support which has not only contributed to my educational progression, but also helped me take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime.
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awke’s Bay is not the most obvious location in New Zealand to undertake a medical elective, which people were quick to point out. It is not frequented by backpackers and rightly so, but it is a fantastic place to live and a hidden gem. Hawke’s Bay was for me New Zealand at its best. It is a perfect encapsulation of the fusion between colonial British tradition and Māori tribal culture that does not occur in the backpacking hotspots of South Island.
approximately three hours drive north of Hastings in a place called Wairoa with a negative reputation but famous for its pies. Wairoa Hospital has 11 acute beds with an additional three beds in a maternity unit. In my second week at Hawke’s Bay Hospital I was fortunate enough to take a four person airplane along the coastline to this hospital in Wairoa for a paediatric clinic.
Emergency referrals from Wairoa are mainly flown to Hawke’s Bay by helicopter. During my first week we saw a young girl flown in twice for a complication of high blood sugars as a result of poorly controlled diabetes, I was based in Hastings Hospital, the and it was not the first time. It was main hospital serving an area almost three times the size of Northumberland presumed she was not taking her but with almost half the population size. insulin and perhaps she was too harshly judged for the repeated Nevertheless this seems to be a huge undertaking. There is another hospital expensive helicopter journeys, thought to be preventable. Later down the line it helping out, a small one run by a GP
