Kirsten Wise: Napier Mayor on the protest action around overnight urgent care nurse services

Protest action is still going ahead in Napier this weekend. 

There's been community backlash after a leaked proposal showed the Government considering cutting the overnight urgent care nurse service. 

It's now choosing to retain it, but still with no GPs on-site. 

Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise told Mike Hosking the closest doctor is a 25-minute drive away at Hastings Hospital's busy Emergency Department. 

She says the protest will not just be for overnight care but about the level of services being provided to the community in general. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The doctor scrap in Napier. The plan going forward is
access to a nurse prescriber overnight telehealthcare. But the problem
here apparently is no doctor per se hasting zd's twenty
five minute drive away. Anyway, the NOPIA mayor, Kirston Wise
is with this Kurston morning for you.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Mike. How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm very well. Indeed, do you not think what the
government has done is acceptable?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Specially I'd like to say we do appreciate the decision
to keep the in person services with the enhanced nurse practitioners,
but really is disappointing if they haven't taken that next
step to ensure that we've got in person GPS on
site as well.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Okay, so can you do anything about it or is
it over?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
We are going to continue to engage with the minister
in government and the rally that was planned is going
to proceed on Sunday and we will be continuing to
fight for and it's not just this, It's not just
urgent overnight services. It's really the level of health services
in general that are being provided to the Napier community.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Okay. Part of the original argument they said was lack
of demand anyway, So I mean, how many people are
standing there too in the morning, wanting the script filled
or something to deal.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
With the lack of demand is largely driven by the
level of service that was being provided. So people weren't
going there because it was nurses who had a very
limited ability to actually assist them anyway. So that's where
the nurse practitioners will has an ability to provide a
higher level of care. And because the other part of

(01:34):
the equation is our ed in Hastings, which is already
overloaded and beyond capacity, so we don't want to put
any more pressure on there.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Okay, Because I was going to say the twenty five
minutes from Napier, I mean, in a big city, twenty
five minutes is nothing. I can't go around the block
in twenty five minutes. That's just one of those things,
isn't it. So it's twenty five minutes really the end
of the world. Or you're telling me that Hastings is
overfull anyway, so it's pointless.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's exactly right. You present a Hasting ZD and you're
waiting six seven, eight hours and you know the other again,
the other part of this is we saw in cyclone
Gabrielle Nature got completely cut off from the rest of
the country, including our hospital and acknowledging that events like
that don't happen every day. But at the same time,

(02:19):
it's a very real risk that we need to mitigate.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Right. Do you realize you've got a poorches show on
this weekend at your place?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
I do. I was in our War Memorial Center yesterday
admiring all the porsches. My goodness, that absolutely incredible.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
That'll bring people in from far and wide, won't it.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
I understand there's about two hundred delegates attending, so yeah,
that's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
It'll be brilliant. And what are you going to do
with the aquarium? That's the other thing I've been reading
about this week, and it's leaking. Is it too expensive
to keep going or not?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
We certainly cannot continue with the status quo, and that's
what we've told our community and that's what we're talking
to them about. There's a number of options on the table,
including you know, see a reimagine or closure, and we
want we want to do what's best for our ratepayers.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Good on you, Christina, you have a good weekend. Appreciate
it very much. Kristen Wise, who is the nape You
mayor know me another host that can go that rogue,
that quickly.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio