Jab hub opensnorton for ‘busy winter’
Tauranga welcomes new centre for immunisations
Anew and “accessible” immunisation hub has officially opened in Tauranga ahead of what one doctor expects to be a “really busy” winter for jabs.
The Rangiora health hub is a partnership between Nga¯ti Ranginui Iwi and the Bay of Plenty District Health Board to provide accessible immunisation services and information in Tauranga.
The hub in Fraser Cove shopping centre is open to everyone in Tauranga who wants to get their vaccinations for Covid, flu, measles, mumps and rubella.
Appointments are not necessary and it will be open seven days a week, including public holidays.
The hub formally opened yesterday with a ceremony and an official blessing of the taonga [treasure], unveiled by Nga¯ ti Ranginui Iwi chief executive Mel Tata and the Bay of Plenty DHB chief medical officer of health Dr Luke Bradford. Merivale School students were also at the ceremony singing waiata [songs].
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times, Nga¯ti Ranginui Iwi chief executive Mel Tata said the hub would be open to everyone in Tauranga Moana, from tamariki [children] to kauma¯tua [elderly].
“We want to be there for those that are at work, for those who only have a day off
a week. We just want to be accessible to everybody.”
But vaccinations were not the “central focus,” she said.
“It is around education and information. We want to be a centre of health and we want our wha¯nau to come in and ... feel confident in the environment that is Rangiora.”
Additional hub services would help with patients’ “continuity of care” by connecting them to GPS and supporting them with their hauora. Social support would also be available.
Tata said: “If you come in for an immunisation we want to know that there is a relationship beginning with the health sector.”
At the ceremony, Tata said the partnership between iwi and DHB was formed in 2020 to create a “response model” to Covid-19. She said Covid-19 had “emphasised and exacerbated” inequities on wha¯nau at that time.
“The supply [and] demand of health services to the need of our wha¯nau was very imbalanced.”
As an iwi, it decided to respond to the needs of wha¯ nau with an immunisation health hub, which was originally located on First Ave.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief medical officer of health Dr Luke Bradford said the hub would be “really busy” in the next two months as there would be “a big drive” in flu and Covid-19 booster shots.
He said a “sign of success” of the hub would be an increase in Ma¯ ori childhood vaccination rates, which were “too low” at the moment.
“The services we deliver are not recognised by the people as being suitable for them, so this is an opportunity to change that.”
This would help prevent outbreaks of measles, mumps and whooping cough, he said.
Bradford said people could access immunisation services in a “more convenient manner” in a “normal and natural” environment.
“If we can get Ma¯ori and others in the area who have struggled to engage with health services to feel comfortable here and know where to seek the help they need ... that will be a real win.”
Bradford said childhood immunisation rates were “terrible” in the Bay and the hub was a chance to change that.
“People can come at the weekends and come out of hours, when they are doing their shopping ... without having to sit in a waiting room full of sick people.”