Bridging urban-rural divide in healthcare aim for services
World Health Day brings an opportunity to reflect on the unique challenges rural communities face in accessing healthcare, infrastructure, and services essential to their overall wellness.
Up to one in four New Zealanders are living in rural communities. Whether that be from the urban boundary to truly remote or working in the primary sector to living rurally on a lifestyle block or in a rural town, rural communities encounter unique challenges that city dwellers do not face.
Dr Garry Nixon, head of rural section of the Department of General Practice and Rural Health at Otago University and doctor in Central Otago, is wellversed in the key health concerns affecting rural New Zealanders.
Garry, 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 face.
“Distance is a barrier and rural people don’t get the same access to specialist care. 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. Garry says that 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 Aotearoa New Zealand, Garry 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 will better inform policy regarding rural health.
“The GCH will provide more accurate measures of the health of rural New Zealanders,” says Garry.
“We are already starting to see this in the data. For example, the GCH is demonstrating higher mortality rates for a number of conditions in rural areas, something that is not evidently using older and generic urban-rural classifications.”
Another service bridging the urbanrural divide in healthcare is the Fieldays Health and Wellbeing Hub, run in collaboration with Christchurchbased 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.
The fact that 33,000 people came through the Health and Wellbeing Hub at Fieldays 2021 further demonstrates the need for greater healthcare access and services in rural New Zealand.
Andrew Panckhurst, communications manager at Mobile Health, says over 30 health and wellness partners will be a part of the Health and Wellbeing Hub for Fieldays 2022.
“We will continue to have a strong emphasis on mental health and wellbeing, along with promoting melanoma skin checks for early detection.
“As always, we’re expecting a great turnout and look forward to welcoming everyone involved. It’s a fantastic couple of days of innovation, education, and globalisation.”
New partners will be joining the hub at Fieldays 2022, including Dementia Waikato and Alzheimer’s New Zealand, who will provide important awareness and education on neurological conditions.
Organisations that provide a health and wellness service and want to help bridge the urban-rural healthcare divide, are encouraged to register their interest for Fieldays 2022.