MARTIN DE RUYTER/Stuff
From early June, bowel screening kits will start arriving in the mailboxes of West Coast people aged 60 to 74, provided they are registered with a general practice. “Many people don’t realise that there might be a problem . taking the test and returning their test sample could quite literally be a life-saver.” The board also expected to detect some pre-cancerous and non-cancerous polyps (small growths) through the testing. “In these instances, the participants will become part of our surveillance programme. Finding and removing polyps early dramatically increases people’s chance of a successful outcome,” Wheble said. On the Coast, about 6505 people would be eligible to take part during the first two years of the programme, he said.
Ellen Curnow.
Reefton is not the first town in New Zealand to offer Covid-19 vaccines to the wider community - Murchison has beaten it by a month.
File image.
Photo: RNZ / Tracy Neal
Reefton s vaccination clinic has been touted as the first to provide vaccines to people outside the priority groups of frontline border and health workers.
However, Murchison began its vaccination programme for the wider community last month.
Nelson Marlborough Health general manager strategy, primary and community Cathy O Malley said it was a more efficient use of vaccinators time and the vaccine to offer it to the wider community in more remote areas like Murchison.
Hush Naidoo/Unsplash
The West Coast District Health Board is looking into offering free health checks to all Māori West Coasters when they turn 50. (Stock image) “Population data shows that there are 210 (Māori West Coasters) between the ages of 45-49 and we can assume based on these numbers that the numbers eligible for the check will be 40-50. “If we follow the bowel screening approach where participants are staggered over two years, the number is very manageable at 20-30 per year.” Speaking after the meeting, Coghlan said Māori mortality rates on the Coast were not as dire as they were in some parts of the North Island, but West Coast Māori still tended to become ill and suffer disability at an earlier age than non-Māori.
The West Coast District Health Board says children in urgent need of mental health support are getting it, despite an overall increase in waiting times for the service.
Photo: 123RF
National Party s mental health spokesman Matt Doocey has accused the Government of failing in its promises to improve mental health services, and says children are waiting too long to see clinicians. Wait times have ballooned under Labour, which I only was able to discover after investigating individual DHB data sets. Children and adolescents are spending far too much time in a queue to see clinicians and get the help that they need, Doocey said.
Supplied Smith said the logistical issues were “quite exaggerated” on the West Coast. The vaccines arrive daily from Christchurch under security guard escort. “It’s defrosted on its way and sits in a fridge at the hospital, and they must be used within five days,” he said. “They get drawn up and they must be administered within six hours.” None of those vaccinated so far had any adverse reactions.
Joanne Naish/Stuff
Nurse vaccinator Barbara Morton and immunisation co-ordinator Betty Gilsenan with Covid-19 vaccines in Greymouth Smith said they had begun with “modest” numbers of 30 a day, but could ramp up to 300 a day.