The RuralFest 2019 was a two-day event hosted by the Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa NZ (RHAANZ), during which representatives of its member organisations met to decide on the key issues impacting the health and wellbeing of the 600,000 people living outside of New Zealand’s major cities. The report that came as a result from this occurrence highlighted key issues that are not new: inequity of access for rural people to timely health care and treatment; and consequential poor health outcomes and the worsening and now critical rural health workforce crisis. 

“This report reinforces the serious lack of maternity services for mothers in rural Central Otago and Wānaka, and comes hot on the heels of a damning Ernst and Young report, [last] month, which slammed the Southern District Health Board’s performance around maternity care in this region,” commented Jaqui Dean, MP for Waitaki. 

Urban-centric contracts for community-based services, especially midwifery, do not reflect the realities of working in rural areas, and financially disadvantage those who choose to do so. “Unfortunately it’s going to take more than reports to fix the deep-seated maternity issues affecting this region and I’m concerned that there just doesn’t seem to be the will to really make any significant change for the better,” concluded Dean. 

In RHAANZ there was a total consensus: the rural health workforce is at crisis point. Many rural health professionals are burnt out, tired of sacrificing personal and family time to respond to accidents, emergencies and after hours cases without being paid. Practitioners are frustrated at subsidising the cost of travelling to see patients who live beyond the town boundary; or losing sleep at night worrying about finding enough staff to meet the health needs of their communities and not knowing who is going to replace them when they retire. 

With its report RHAANZ wants to call Government to action. The proposals included: work with RHAANZ and key rural health stakeholders to develop a Rural Health Workforce Plan; and all service contracts are viewed through the lens of the Rural Proofing Policy to level the playing field across urban and rural service providers. The other four critical issues RHAANZ acknowledged to contribute to the Rural Health Crisis were: establish a Rural Health Commissioner; recognise the role of rural hospitals in the health and wellbeing of vibrant rural communities; ensure safe and reliable maternity services for all rural women; equitable distribution of Government’s investment in mental health and wellbeing; and finally, equitable investment in the use of technology to enhance access to health services. Along with identifying the crisis points, in the report RHAANZ also submitted solutions that could be efficiently implemented if the Government will listen.