Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2018
INSIDE: Stitching the community back together P26
Outreach needed in south P6
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A night on patrol
DHB looks at after-hours clinic options Cal Roberts
There’s a group of volunteers who drive around the streets of Wairarapa, making sure residents are safe. EMILY IRELAND finds out what the job is all about. It’s 10pm on a Friday night, and I’d normally be tucked up in bed. But not tonight. Instead, I’m waiting outside at the back of the Masterton police station, ready to hit the road with the Masterton Community Patrol. It’s one of those cold still nights where your breath transforms into clouds of vapour before your eyes, and you can hear shouts from
people across town enjoying the end of their week with a beer – or seven. The police compound gate slides open and the community patrol car glides out. In the driver’s seat is patrol coordinator Cheryl Watson – when she’s not volunteering, she’s working as a paramedic for Wellington Free Ambulance. If nominations were open for Wairarapa’s superwoman,
I’m sure she would be a frontrunning contender. In the front passenger seat is Sarah Mail – she wants to be a police officer like her dad, and is going through the recruitment process. Her day job is working at a local bakery. Kicking off the four-hour shift, we called in to a local petrol station to grab a coffee. Continued on page 4
Plans for a new after-hours medical service, open longer than current options, are being looked into by the Wairararpa District Health Board (DHB). At Monday’s DHB meeting, Board member Adrienne Staples moved to explore options on a model of after-hours healthcare that would work best for Wairarapa. One model suggested in the agenda was a seven-day-a-week urgent care clinic based at Wairarapa Hospital which would help people with medical issues that could not wait for a doctor’s appointment but did require emergency care. It is envisaged the clinic would see patients with problems such as sprains, cuts and broken bones, and high fevers and illnesses, treated without the need for an appointment. The proposed urgent care clinic would operate at the hospital until 9pm each day, with the emergency department continuing to cover primary care when the clinic was closed. Patients would arrive at the same entrance, before being directed to the appropriate unit. Masterton’s current after hours service is open on weekends, from 9am-5pm, with four clinics in South Wairarapa and Carterton open one day each, from 5-7pm, Monday to Thursday. In the first three months of 2018, more than 1100 patients were seen at Wairarapa’s current after-hours services. Papers prepared for the DHB by Compass Health stated the demand for services was increasing with the region’s population, as were expectations of services in terms of timeliness and accessibility. An urgent care service would give prompt access to medical experts, Compass Health said. Masterton Medical Centre general manager Robyn Wilson said it was open to any discussion that may improve after-hours service for patients.
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