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Community backlash has prompted the Counties Manukau District Health Board (DHB) to review its decision not to fund an after-hours emergency clinic.
East Care Accident and Medical in Botany closed its overnight service last year after 24 years of operating.
Photo: Google Maps
The closure means east and South Aucklanders have to go to Middlemore Hospital s emergency department for after-hours medical care, putting more pressure on hospital wait times, and for some, a lengthy journey.
It followed the DHB s 2018 decision to stop funding after-hours accident and emergency services.
But the DHB commissioned an independent report by consultants Sapere, which was released last week.
Photo: 123rf
The charity Barnardos said the number of 5 to 19 year olds calling 0800 What s Up, or chatting with its counsellors online has gone up as wait times for other mental health services increase.
Spokesperson Jo Harrison said the statistics showed more youth needed help - but also that more were asking for help. I think there is definitely an increase in anxiety for many of our rangatahi, and also secondly, particularly around the online chat, I think young people are finding it easier. or perhaps safer. or perhaps more anonymous.
She said people could contact the helpline about anything, including friendships, bullying, abusive situations or self-harm. And she believed there had been an increase in part because of the pressures of Covid-19, and increased wait times for other mental health services.
New Zealand nurses’ union cancels strike after pay offer
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) announced Friday that it had cancelled a strike notice for July 29, following talks with the country’s 20 District Health Boards (DHBs). Some 30,000 nurses and health care assistants struck on June 9, after rejecting a derisory pay offer of just 1.38 percent and voted for three further nationwide strikes on July 29, August 19 and September 9.
Nurses march through Wellington during the June 9 strike. (Photo: WSWS Media)
The DHBs’ original offer was a pay cut relative to inflation (which is 3.3 percent) and contained nothing to address the staffing crisis in hospitals. The Labour Party-led government has announced a three-year wage freeze for the majority of public employees, including healthcare workers and teachers. It is imposing severe austerity measures to make workers shoulder the burden of the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
16 July 2021
India: Punjab public sector workers strike for better pay
Workers from several Punjab state government departments stopped work for two days on July 8 in protest over the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations. The action followed demonstrations by public sector workers and doctors on June 23 and a week-long strike by the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union on June 22 over the commission’s recommendations.
Mass Media Employees and Officers Association members from the Health Department’s mass media wing stopped work and demonstrated on July 8. The association complained that their demand that workers in jobs with the same educational qualification be paid the same as workers in the Public Relations Department had been ignored.