Around 100 agitated Napier residents gathered at St Paul’s Church last week to protest what they see as woeful under-provision of Napier’s health care services.

The immediate trigger for the protest was ostensibly concern about diminished after-hours emergency care at the Napier Health Centre. Unfortunately, this concern was barely mentioned by the evening’s speakers. And certainly no ‘solution’ was voiced.

Instead, the rhetoric of the evening veered off to broader disgruntlement with current NZ health care (ably voiced by Labour’s health spokesperson, Dr Ayesha Verrall and others). Most of it well-grounded … except from those still dreaming the fantasy of Napier’s 67,000 residents regaining their own public hospital.

NZ boasts 39 public hospitals according to Health NZ. If we were to provide one for every 67,000 residents, we would need 79. Fantasyland.

Napier residents need to stop that distracting dreaming and focus politically on how to get the 24/7 quality primary care they indeed deserve in their community. And in fact were promised decades ago when Napier Hospital was closed.

The difficulty in providing that level of service comes down to having an adequate clinician workforce – doctors, nurses, midwives. And having an adequate medical workforce requires adequate funding for primary care … a need inadequately addressed by both the current Government (the two National MPs were roundly booed when their apologies for non-attendance were announced) and previous ones, whatever their political colour.

Also evident in the meeting was the lack of a strong authoritative champion focused on advocating for not just Napier’s, but the entire region’s, healthcare needs.

The senior local politician at the meeting was Mayor Kirsten Wise, who allied herself and her council with the need for better health service for Napier. But really, while welcome, should it be left to the mayor to carry this ball? On the one hand, as Napier’s elected leader, her voice should be sounded. But she was elected to run Napier’s council business, not to reform Health NZ.

Once upon a time, Hawke’s Bay had a District Health Board, partly elected, partly appointed (and indeed Mayor Wise served on it for three years, Barbara Arnott served as well). What that provided was a locally accountable, informed channel for advocacy.

When chaired by the likes of Kevin Atkinson, that Board was accessible and heard public grievances, had a direct line of sight into local health spending, and had the standing to advocate to Wellington on behalf of Hawke’s Bay’s health needs.

However, in pursuit of desirable hospital services consolidation, the Labour Government unwisely ditched the Health Boards in favour of a murky local consultation process of questionable advocacy mana that never gained traction.

The result has been the loss of any local accountability mechanism for monitoring and advocacy regarding Hawke’s Bay’s health services. Can anyone reading this article even identify the senior official in care of hospital services in HB? Have you ever seen him address a public forum like the one reported on here?

As a media watchdog, BayBuzz can attest to the distance between local accountability and HB Hospital. Any media inquiry we make to HB Hospital is directed to Wellington and either answered from there (if answered) or the ‘approved’ reply is relayed down and eventually ‘voiced’ by a local spokesperson.

So now what? The convenors of the St Paul’s meeting are planning a public rally at the Napier Sound Shell for 1 pm Sunday 23 March. Details here. Hopefully speakers at that event will be more enlightening regarding the Napier community’s actual health service gaps, what must be done to close those, and who must be held accountable.