Woman doctor welcome

It has been two weeks now since our new doctor, Dr Kathryn Rollo, started in our clinic.

Kath has strong ties with the Far North through her Pukeroa and Tauhara whanau connections and is excited about her return home to help the people.

Kath has made the move to Kaitaia with her husband Herb and their twin sons following a career that has seen her work at Rotorua Hospital and more recently, St Lukes Accident and Medical Centre.

Yesterday I witnessed how important it was to our patients for Kath to be working with us. A female patient was very happy to be seeing a female doctor and was ecstatic that she could see a Maori female doctor.

In Kaitaia there are only three female doctors out of 15 in total and having the option of seeing a woman doctor is welcomed by female patients.

It was an interesting story getting Kath and her whanau to move up to Kaitaia to work. I was working in Rotorua around the time she had graduated and we talked up the virtues of living and working there (great people, great town and great learning environment).

Kath and Herb signed up and nek minit, were moving to Rotorua. Shortly after their decision to move I was being courted to come to the Far North and after only weeks in Rotorua, Kath and the whanau were attending our farewell.

Since that time our name had been mud with the Rollo whanau and any plea to come home to help that whanau was falling on deaf ears; and rightly so. So for seven years whenever we spoke and we mentioned the possibility of coming up to live and work here in Kaitaia there was a loud laugh on the end of the phone.

Then an interesting thing happened where Kath thought it was a good idea to call me in the middle of last year to see how we were going given the drama unfolding at the time. Kath was calling to offer her support and I seized the moment to check whether there was an ice cube chance in hell that they would be interested in joining us on our crusade.

The result is that we now have our first Maori female doctor in a long time (there was one who practised here when the hospital was based at Mangonui).

Interestingly, after Kath made the commitment to come she was working in her clinic in Auckland with a nurse who has a friend who is a doctor in Kaitaia and told her not to get caught up in my crusade. Kath’s typically straight response was that the ‘‘crusade’’ were her people.

After seven years of working in Kaitaia quite isolated, it is a wonderful relief to work with people who share our vision for health care and we look forward to many exciting opportunities to contribute.

No reira e te whanaunga me te whanau hoki nau mai hoki mai ki to ake kainga.