Wellbeing Hub returns to Fieldays
Rural NZers face problems accessing healthcare
Rural communities face a very specific set of challenges in accessing healthcare, infrastructure and services essential to their overall wellness.
Up to one in four New Zealanders are living in rural communities, from the urban boundary to truly remote, working in the primary sector to living rurally on a lifestyle block or in a rural town.
Dr Garry Nixon, head of the rural section of Otago University’s Department of General Practice and Rural Health and doctor in Central Otago, is well-versed in the key health concerns affecting rural New Zealanders.
Dr Nixon, who took part in the panel discussion, Taking the pulse of rural health, on Fieldays TV last year, says access to health services is a significant challenge rural communities are up against.
“Distance is a barrier and rural people don’t get the same access to specialist care,” he says.
“Providing good and accessible healthcare in rural areas means doing things differently to the way they are done in town — not simply providing scaled down versions of urban healthcare.”
Another major issue affecting the health and wellness of rural communities is the severe shortage of doctors and other health professionals in rural areas. Dr Nixon says to resolve this, training needs to be centred in rural regions.
“The international evidence tells us that if we want health professionals to work in rural areas, we need to train them there.
“This needs a targeted central government initiative to work with the universities to create a rural clinical school or equivalent solution.”
He adds that improving access to services and health outcomes for rural Ma¯ori is an important priority, saying: “Rural Ma¯ori have poorer health outcomes than both urban Ma¯ori and rural non-Ma¯ori.”
To determine the extent of urbanrural health inequities in New Zealand, Dr Nixon and his research team have developed a Geographic Classification for Health (GCH).
This tool classifies residential addresses as either urban or rural from a health perspective, and in turn will better inform policy regarding rural health.
Another service bridging the urban-rural divide in healthcare is the Fieldays Health and Wellbeing Hub, run in collaboration with Christchurch-based rural health provider, Mobile Health.
Here, Fieldays event goers can receive a wealth of free check-ups, tests and advice, from skin cancer spot checks, blood glucose tests, blood pressure tests, and atrial fibrillation checks, to smear tests, hearing checks, hepatitis C tests and confidential mental health support.
Organisations that provide a health and wellness service are encouraged to register their interest for Fieldays 2022.