Small Southland Town Chases Nurse Funding

Nightcaps is trying to hold onto its nurse — but the fundraiser has barely started and locals haven't felt the pinch yet.

The Nightcaps Medical Centre has had nursing services for 35 years. WellSouth Primary Health Network funded a nurse for 20 hours a week until March. Now that funding is gone. The Otautau Medical Trust has stepped in to cover 10 hours a week, but Nightcaps Community Medical Trust chair James Dixon needs more than $15,000 to restore the full service.

Dixon said the response so far had been modest. "There's some level of disappointment or annoyance that it's been reduced... when it's been going for so long," he said.

He acknowledged the campaign hadn't gone wide yet. "I haven't really sort of gone door knocking to, I suppose, some better off people who might be more willing or able to help out," Dixon said.

He stopped short of blaming WellSouth for the cut. "I'm sure they're trying their best," he said.

The bigger concern is what happens if the shortfall isn't covered. Otautau is 20 kilometres from Nightcaps, but for the wider farming community, the nearest medical centre can be twice that distance. Dixon worries about the knock-on effect for emergency services.

"The other risk, I think, is that organisations such as St John's, with the ambulance, they might get increasing calls from this area," he said.

For a small rural town, losing half a nurse's hours isn't abstract. It's the difference between a local appointment and a 40-kilometre drive — or an ambulance callout that didn't need to happen.

Source: rnz.co.nz / whatsoninvers.nz