System Fix: Episode 10 – Rural sojourn

“If you’ve seen one rural town, you’ve seen one rural town,” says Jo Scott-Jones, Ōpotiki GP and medical director for Pinnacle Midland Health Network. And therein lies the challenge for those planning reform of the health system and how those reforms reach into New Zealand’s rural sector.

At the National Rural Health Conference earlier this year, health minister Andrew Little acknowledged the challenges faced by the rural sector, and the Health and Disability Review Transition Unit deputy director Martin Hefford provided some insight into the unit’s thinking on rural localities.

For System Fix, New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain caught up with delegates to hear what they were thinking about the reforms. Along with Dr Scott-Jones and Mr Hefford, she talks to Honey Winter, a director of Ruapehu Health; Garry Nixon, rural hospital doctor and GP; Kate Baddock, former NZMA chair and Warkworth GP; Emily Gill, Ōpotiki GP; and Don Cameron, Ruapehu District Council mayor.