King Country
THURSDAY OCTOBER 2, 2025
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OCTOBER 2, 2025
Surgeries to return By Chris Gardner
Te Kūiti residents will soon not have to travel out of town for out of hours care or day surgery. Mobile Health chief executive Mark Eager told a rural health roadshow last Wednesday the Mobile Surgical Unit will begin regular visits to Te Kūiti Hospital from 2027. “Surgical services are coming back to town,” Eager said. It had been many years since the last surgery in Te Kūiti, he said. Eager said visits would start after a new unit had been built. “It’s great news, a real game changer,” said associate minister of health Matt Doocey. “They tend to operate sometimes where we have the tyranny of geography.” Doocey, accompanied by minister for rural communities Mark Patterson, said Te Kūiti was one of six rural and remote communities chosen to pilot innovative models of urgent and after-hours care this year, as part of the Rural and Remote Prototype. “Rural health care is under real pressure,” Patterson said. This year, new services will be trialled in Twizel, Tākaka, Tūrangi, Te Kūiti, Coromandel, and Great Barrier Island before being rolled out nationwide. Te Kūiti Medical Centre will test rural-specific models that include enhanced point-of-care diagnostics, improved access to medicines, equipment and tools to support clinical decision-making and closer coordination with ambulance service. The initiative aims to test and refine approaches tailored specifically to the needs of rural populations,
under the New and Improved Urgent and After-hours Care Framework. Waitomo District Council rural ward councillor Gavin Todd spoke of the problems attracting ambulance staff to rural areas. “Is there a possibility that we can have extra funding? If you have to pay more, you have to pay more. Money solves most problems,” he said. “Watch this space,” was Doocey’s reply. “Something is going to happen.” Hato Hone St John is eight volunteers short for a 10-strong first response unit established in Te Kūiti in September. Of the planned opening of the University of Waikato Medical School in 2028, Doocey said: “It’s really an opportunity to think about things a bit differently.” One speaker complained there were only two surgeries in town, in contrast to seven alcohol retailers and six vape retailers. Eager said Australia had made vaping prescription only. “In Australia you can walk down the street and not see vaping,” Eager said. Doocey said prime minister Christopher Luxon had not ruled out doing the same in New Zealand. Kāwhia GP John Burton advocated for more primary healthcare with the story of a remote patient he had been able to reach before an ambulance only to discover that she needed antibiotics and not hospital care. “It takes three hours for somebody to get from Marokopa to the hospital,” said Te Toi Ora ki Whaingaroa general manager Mike Edmonds. “People die.”
Tahāroa decision on hold By Chris Gardner
Associate minister of health Matt Doocey says Te Kūiti will pilot innovative models of urgent and after-hours care. Photo: Chris Gardner
Taharoa Ironsands is rethinking plans to give eight employees until Boxing Day to move to alternative accommodation in Taharoa village. The company issued notices to eight employees who had sole occupancy of multiple bedroom houses within the Tahāroa village on Friday, prompting a post of objection on Ngati Mahuta’s Mahuta Ake Ake Facebook page. As a consequence, the company told The News it would enter into a 30-day period of consultation. “Let’s be clear: this is not just about tenancy law,” the Facebook post read. “This is about a corporate culture that treats people as disposable and shows no respect for the whakapapa, community, and whenua that make up Tahaaroa. “When companies act without compassion, it reflects the values of their leadership. What kind of owner forces whaanau from their homes to serve ‘operational efficiency’? Company director Brent Coffey said the eight employees, who pay $28 in rent a week, were due to be moved to new
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