Letters 27 November 2009
Integrated Community Health Centre
A deed of trust will define community ownership and financial responsibilities of the proposed new healthcare service. The proposed trust board is top-heavy with Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board, Tasman District Council and Golden Bay Community Board members. The board may co-opt other members to suit its needs. Golden Bay representation could become small. What are the implications of this?
The trust board would contract with a company to provide management and services (hiring employees, managing subcontractors, purchasing supplies, and defining availability and extent of services). Many companies in New Zealand and Australia are experienced in such businesses. Nelson Bays Public Health Organisation has been proposed to be this company but has no experience. If NBPHO is the initial contractor, will its contract require renewal through a tendering process in due course?
An integrated facility is a year or two distant. Many improvements can be actioned immediately, such as centralised purchasing, billing and financial management, shared patient databases, after-hours call at the hospital and retraining nurses to take on greater roles.
The Ministry of Health’s Primary Health Care Strategy for “Better, Faster, More Convenient” healthcare services requires these improvements, with or without a purpose-built facility.
Vic Eastman MD
I would be interested to know how many in Golden Bay think IMG should hold formal public meetings as well as the Open Days advertised for next week.
I wrote to IMG before their last meeting giving my cumulative reasons for the need for public meetings:
1. To not hold public meetings can give the impression of avoiding public scrutiny.
2. Answers given to questions at Open Days cannot constitute formal IMG answers, just informal ones from IMG members present.
3. The discipline of public formality is lost.
4. There can be no assurance to questioners at the Open Days that their questions and concerns will be passed on to the whole IMG. (This assurance has since been given in the publicity in The GB Weekly, 20 November.)
5. Individual questioners can misinterpret responses and personally promulgate their misunderstandings, to the detriment of the process.
The The GB Weekly item above implies there will be no public meetings. A key issue is public understanding of the proposed trust, its constitution and its obligations. It is important that meetings are held on this.
Peter Foster
The IMG’s communication pages (GBW 20/11) announced the dates for the beginning of the consultation process between the people of Golden Bay and the IMG, and restated their reasons for looking into changing healthcare provision in Golden Bay.
It is imperative that we all make the effort to go to these Open Days in order to find out more, express our opinions and decide if the plans are truly affordable and sustainable.
1. What will the financial responsibilities and obligations of the new trust, the community and the DHB be?
2. How does the business plan provide for the current shortfall in Government and private funding of all three businesses?
3. Where will the money for the rent, which must surely reflect the costs engendered by the proposed upgraded facilities, come from?
4. What guarantees are in place to ensure that the community will not be expected to bail out the new trust board when Government funding for hospital beds no longer matches rising costs, as has occurred with rest home care?
5. People have emergencies and require urgent health care at any time, day or night. After 35 years of being the wife of a man doing a job that he trained for and loves, I really want to know how it is that with fewer staff than now, they plan to spare doctors or nurses on-call stress?
Liza Eastman
Congratulations to the group for the detailed information in last week’s GB Weekly. With regard to the choosing of a site for the new centre, perhaps it should it be kept in mind that where the site is within the Takaka township area is really of very little significance, as by far the bulk of the population using the centre live outside the township area. Therefore they will be travelling to the centre from all directions. Let’s hope we all make use of the Open Days to ask our questions.
Anne Gentleman
Village Market
It was so, so wonderful to go to our Village Market this past weekend and find it located on the grass, in a true park-like environment. Everyone was so much happier to see it located in the park and they were all talking about how much nicer it was to have it set up in such a “people friendly” environment, rather than on a tar-sealed car park.
For me it was truly wonderful to see the kids running around playing in barefoot, and to see people sitting on the grass in the shade, eating the wonderful food served up by our friends. It was really nice to see parents pushing their children on the swings (such easy access to the playground).
I can only imagine how nice it was for the library to have people actually using the public toilets, rather than walking over to use theirs, while shopping at the market. The advantages are so numerous, including the ability to use the car park for what it was designed for, parking cars. I truly hope those who have the ability to make this a permanent change see the wisdom in keeping our market in such a “people-friendly” environment. The car park could always serve as a backup for those pesky rainy days.
Tenzin Kalden
Tourism rate
I have been following up the letter from Mr Reg Turner (GBW Letters 6/11). In a letter addressed to me from the Nelson Tasman Tourism chairman, and dated 17 November, I was told:
“During the process of establishing the database of businesses… Nelson Tasman Tourism estimated that in addition to commercial accommodation providers, there were a further estimated 400 holiday homes which commercially advertised as “visitor accommodation”
“Tasman District Council was supplied with a database which included some (those easily identified) but not this entire list of commercially advertised holiday homes. TDC made the decision not to include holiday homes in the targeted tourism rate.”
“The decision to exclude holiday homes was not made by the CEO of Nelson Tasman Tourism – in fact NTT is very keen to have commercially advertised homes included in the rate.”
So what has happened? Are some tourist operators having to pay an unfair share of this tourism rate?
John Lee
Act on fire risk at Milnthorpe
This spring there was a special fire protection meeting at the stone bridge in Milnthorpe together with the Collingwood Fire Brigade and DOC. This is because Milnthorpe residents, the Milnthorpe Park caretaker and DOC are well aware how dangerous the situation is with thousands of big eucalyptus trees growing in the park.
According to the fire brigade, we residents have three minutes to evacuate in case of a fire. And we who are living on the mountainside of the highway have no chance to survive. This is because the fire is likely to start along the highway.
As residents and ratepayers we have a legal right to demand from the authorities that they provide some protection for us. Planning meetings and then postponing them does not help. What would help is a speed reduction to 50kmph along the highway through the park and the entrance to Milnthorpe and some radar to control it. We already had some bad accidents at this place.
Therefore we demand that the authorities act now and put the speed limit in place in Milnthorpe. If not, they are fully responsible for any fire disaster.
Black Bear – Ursus Schwarz
Search and Rescue
Golden Bay Search and Rescue had their 50th anniversary Celebrations on Saturday 21 November. These were attended by 140 people, both past and present members and their families.
We would like to extend a special thank you to all who attended and made the day such a success. There was a lot of catching up and reminiscing about old times - exactly what the day was for. Thank you to everyone who lent photos and newspaper articles. These certainly provoked a few memories. And thank you to all the organisations who supported this event.
Graham Pomeroy on behalf of Golden Bay SAR
Collingwood sewerage spill
Clarification.
With regard to the sewerage contamination of the Aorere Estuary and our beautiful beaches. This was actually just an information pipeline leaking faeces through a memorandum between TDC chief engineer Jeff Cuthbertson, CEO Paul Wylie and the ribbon cutter with the mayoral chain.
Though unpleasant to digest, we have had to suffer this roughage from Richmond since they manoeuvered their orifice into Takaka.
Love and Peace
BJ White
Fonterra and infant formula
As part of Fonterra’s expansion and restructure strategy (GBW 20/11), the chairman Henry van der Haden stated in an interview on Radio New Zealand that Fonterra intends to increase profits associated with the manufacture of infant formula.
In my many years of experience as a midwife in Golden Bay, most dairy farming families have had the attitude of “why wouldn’t we breastfeed?” They have always known that cows milk is for calves and breastmilk is for babies, up to one to two years of age. It seems a contradiction that their farmer-owned dairy co-operative is looking to increase its share of the global infant formula industry which carries known risks for babies and later adults.
Celia Butler
Cooking on a budget
I would firstly like to thank Mrs Feasey for her “In Good Taste” column. Some of her recipes are great and quite inspiring. However, while I know her recipes are not aimed at those on a tight budget, I found her remark about “never making a salad out of stuff in the fridge which needs using (unless it really goes together)” rather condescending.
As a grandmother who has had varied budgets to live on, I know that cooking fancy meals from a recipe when money isn’t a problem is very easy compared with creating an interesting meal from what you have.
So could we please have a small place for some of those really basic recipes that can be varied according to what you have in the fridge at the time? I’m sure there are a lot of grandmas out there with them, and to start it off here’s mine.
Just about anything patties. Chop small or mash slightly any leftover solid savoury food (cooked veg, meat or fish, stews or stir fries). Mix with an equal quantity of leftover cooked rice. Beat in one or two eggs to bind and fry large spoonfuls in a lightly oiled frying pan. I have a friend who uses cooked two-minute noodles instead of the rice.
Sally Everett
Santa Parade
It would be wonderful to see cultural groups represented in the parade. If any Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese or other nationalities or cultural groups have some traditional costumes, please join the parade. The more the merrier!
For information regarding the Golden Bay Santa Parade please phone me on 525 8876 or Shirley Bayliss on 525 8135. Due to an oversight on my part, this has been left off posters and the previous GB Weekly ad. And is Santa going to be a surprise!
Dave Myall, Santa Parade organiser
Friends of the Cobb
Friends of Cobb are in full swing trapping and enjoying the beautiful Cobb Valley. There have been numerous reports of kiwi. Weka and robins are almost underfoot and we are delighted to report another blue duck family on the Takaka River. We have placed about 12 extra traps along the road in to the Cobb power station, specifically to protect this duck family. We are looking for someone to take on this trap line for the summer. It is to be checked monthly and all traps are close to the road, so a low level of fitness is required. Some petrol vouchers are available. Please contact David Morgan 524 8331.
Marian Milne
Corrections
1. Regarding last week’s business article, the new gallery Quirk’s correct opening hours are: Tuesday to Thursday noon to 6pm, and Friday to Saturday noon to 8pm.
2. Regarding the caption under the photo accompanying the article on Naked Possum’s resource consent, the photo was, in fact, taken 300 metres away from the Naked Possum property and is the entrance to Mark Strange’s farm.
