John MacDonald: Why no more after-hours funding for Christchurch? - Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Here’s a story someone told me this morning about what happened within the last six-or-so weeks, when a Christchurch woman took her teenage daughter to the after-hours surgery.

I’m telling you this because the Government has announced that there’s going to be increased funding in Thursday’s budget for after-hours medical care.

Which is great. I’m not going to bag the Government for that. And the fact that people in rural areas are going to get better access to urgent healthcare is great.

But there’s an aspect of yesterday’s announcement that makes no sense to me.

It’s the fact that none of that extra funding is coming Christchurch's way. New Zealand’s second-largest city, and there’s not going to be anything extra pumped into after hours healthcare here.

This is the place where, in the last year or so, we’ve had the 24 hour surgery unable to operate 24/7. Where we’ve had the emergency department turning people away. Shutting its doors because people can’t get into the after hours or can’t afford the after hours and the ED gets overwhelmed.

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