Category: Radio New Zealand

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Why can’t we agree on the office aircon temperature?

Source: Radio New Zealand

“In the afternoon, it gets hot at my desk… when I come to work, it’s too cold… It’s cold outside but hot inside.”

These are common office complaints – and Steve Simpson hears them year-round. He chairs the Auckland committee of FMANZ, which has more than 1800 facility manager members nationwide.

“For those people that might have a cold coming on, or their health isn’t that flash, or they like exercising during the day, or they like sitting at the window side to see the sun, there isn’t always going to be a sweet spot for those people.”

Complaints tend to happen during seasonal changes as indoor temperatures drift within the recommended ranges, says HVAC Engineering Group chairman Robert Banks.

Unsplash / Getty Images

But getting about 80 percent of staff satisfied with the indoor temperature is about as good as it gets, says HVAC Engineering chairman Robert Banks.

What’s the recommended temperature?

WorkSafe’s recommends 18-22C in winter and 19-24C in summer for indoor thermal comfort.

However, Banks says a temperature lower than 21C during winter in a space where staff are sedentary and not wearing their winter gear may mean it’s too cold. So building managers of such spaces usually follow a guidance of heating to no less than 21C in winter, as research had shown most people will find this comfortable.

Modern building systems use a “computer-controlled set point arrangement” to maintain temperatures, Banks says.

Some workplaces also ask for local thermostats that can shift a few degrees either way.

“Psychologically, people are quite happy if they can adjust it by 1 degree, [feeling it has made a difference].”

Complaints tend to happen during seasonal changes as indoor temperatures drift within these different ranges and people adjust their clothing, he says. “But people are less tolerant of overcooling than overheating, tests have shown that.”

Banks, who has designed and supervised office air‑conditioning systems, says several building design factors influence how temperature is felt, including glazing type, insulation and occupancy. For example, 10 people can give off a kilowatt of heat, so a small 10sqm meeting room may only suit four or five people to maintain temperature and air quality.

Sitting right next to the sun may mean you’ll feel hotter when the sun strikes, especially if the glazing is clear.

Unsplash / Curated Lifestyle

Why do my peers not feel as cold/hot as I do?

If you’re rushing from one meeting room to another, “your equilibrium body temperature is going to be cooler than someone who’s sitting there for two or three hours straight”, Banks says.

University of Otago public health researcher Zhiting Chen says body size, weight, composition, and metabolic rate all affect how quickly someone gains or loses heat.

Chen says research shows women, on average, prefer temperatures 1-3C warmer than men, and some studies suggest women have a narrower comfort range.

“These differences are usually explained partly through physiology. For example, women generally have a lower metabolic rate, which means the body produces less internal heat,” Chen said in an email.

“Female thermal perception may also vary across life stages and biological changes, including menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and menopause.”

Thermoregulation becomes less efficient with age, making older adults more sensitive to temperatures outside their comfort zone, Chen says. “Chronic conditions, disabilities, and some medications can also influence how people experience indoor temperature.”

University of Otago public health researcher Zhiting Chen.

Supplied / University of Otago

Who is the research based on?

Chen says many influential ‘thermal comfort’ models don’t fully capture the diversity of people’s needs. “These models were often built around an ‘average’ occupant, historically based heavily on young, healthy male adults.

“This does not mean these models are useless, but they can be limited when applied to the diverse populations who actually live and work in buildings.”

Some guidance now recognises that vulnerable groups may need narrower or more protective ranges, but most standards still don’t account for gender or broader demographic variation, Chen says.

Banks notes that while older research used clothed male mannequins, “the calibration of heat loss is prorated based on the size of the body… and all clothing can be given a clothing insulation factor”.

Does it affect productivity?

A University of Southern California study of more than 500 German students, published in 2019, found women performed better on math and verbal tasks at higher temperatures, while men performed slightly better at cooler ones. (Although the relationship between temperature and men’s performance was less pronounced.)

The authors say the findings “raise the stakes for the battle of the thermostat”.

“One of the most surprising things we learned is this isn’t about the extremes of temperature,” the study’s co-author, Tom Chang, said in a news release. “Even if you go from 60 to 75 degrees [15.5C – 23.9C], which is a relatively normal temperature range, you still see a meaningful variation in performance.”

Chang told RNZ’s Sunday Morning his research aimed to show that temperature also affected the productivity of knowledge workers or white collar workers.

Dealing with the complaints

Banks suggests a simple test: ask six nearby colleagues if they also feel too hot or cold, and report to your building manager if most agree.

If it’s too hot, don’t crank the system beyond the recommended range – it won’t work faster and may just end up using more energy instead, he says.

Steve Simpson is the Facilities Management Association of NZ’s Auckland Committee chairperson and Colliers associate director.

Supplied / FMANZ

FMANZ’s Simpson says good consultation with staff is essential, so the “outliers” don’t take matters into their own hands and disenfranchise others.

If someone is consistently too cold, consider moving them to a sunnier desk or reviewing airflow patterns, he suggests. Banks adds it may be a matter of rethinking the limitations of dress codes.

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Formal complaint lodged with United Nations over changes to New Zealand’s pay equity laws

Source: Radio New Zealand

Pay equity protestors voice their opinions outside Parliament on Budget Day 2025. RNZ/Marika Khabazi

A group of organisations have lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations, asking it to investigate whether the government’s changes to New Zealand’s pay equity laws amount to systemic discrimination against women.

Last year the government cancelled claims that covered more than 180,000 workers – the vast majority women – across care and disability support, education, health, and community and social services.

The complaint to the UN, brought by Pay Equity Coalition Aotearoa (PECA) – which comprises of 20 organisations – comes one year after legislation which cancelled existing pay equity claims and introduced stricter tests for bringing new claims.

Dame Judy McGregor, spokesperson for PECA, said the changes had stalled progress for workers in historically undervalued roles.

“These are roles that have been chronically undervalued for decades. A year on, workers are no closer to justice. The law change has created a system that is much harder to access or work with – one where the thresholds and controls now make it extremely difficult for claims to proceed.”

Professor Gail Pacheco, Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission, said pay equity was a fundamental human right protected under the international conventions New Zealand was party to.

“The amendments made last year undermined the right to pay equity. Introduced without any consultation, they reversed decades of progress and made it significantly harder to address structural undervaluation of workers in female dominated occupations.”

The complaint has been made by four victims of pay discrimination, their representative unions, and the Pay Equity Coalition Aotearoa.

Mel Burgess, a teacher and NZEI Te Riu Roa member, is one of the four women specifically mentioned in the complaint.

“Like women everywhere, I just felt blindsided. We had been going for eight years by that stage for the early childhood claim.”

Melissa Ansell-Bridges, Secretary of the NZ Council of Trade Unions, said the issue however did go beyond individual claims.

“This isn’t about one claim or one sector. It’s about whether the law itself now creates a system that structurally disadvantages women.”

New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) spokesperson and hospice nurse Fiona McDougal said almost 95 percent of NZNO nurses and support staff working for hospices are female.

“It is no longer acceptable for us to be underpaid because caring has long been considered the role of women.”

While Sandra Kirby, chief executive of Rural Women New Zealand, said a year on the women who lost their pay equity claims were still showing up, still caring for elderly, still teaching children, and she said, they were still waiting to be paid fairly for it.

“Workers across the country were hurt, but rural communities feel it in a particular way, because so much of what keeps them alive depends on work in health, education and care that has historically been undervalued and underpaid.”

Van Velden says law has been made simpler

Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden said New Zealand continued to have a robust, workable pay equity system.

“We’ve made the law simpler and protections for pay equity remain. Claims are already progressing under the new system.”

She said the Human Rights Commission was independent, and it was for the Commissioners to decide what they believed they should submit to the United Nations.

“Our focus is ensuring pay equity is delivered through a clear, evidence-based process that is fair and sustainable.”

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Wellington Phoenix women confident they can turn things around against Roar

Source: Radio New Zealand

Makala Woods of Wellington Phoenix celebrates a goal with Brooke Nunn (left) and Lucia Leon (right). www.photosport.nz

A sense of calm is permeating throughout the Wellington Phoenix women’s camp, knowing they have home advantage in the second leg of their A-league semi-final this weekend.

The Phoenix women will have to overcome a one-goal deficit when they host Brisbane Roar, if they want to make club history and progress to their first ever A-league final.

They will be home in Porirua for this Sunday’s return leg, trailing Brisbane Roar 2-1, after their opening encounter across the Tasman.

American forward Makala Woods said they had not found it difficult to move on from the disappointment of losing the first leg in Brisbane on Sunday.

“I think it’s just the name of the game, we’re in finals football,” Woods said. “We have some experience… and we have really calm players at the helm so I think with the people we have, the coaching staff, our personnel, I think we’re going to be okay.”

Woods said they were confident they can turn things around.

“Everyone’s very calm, we’ve been through the game plan, we’ve reviewed it, we know what we need to do. I don’t think we walked away happy with it but I think we handled the chaos very well so coming home to a bunch of fans, we do really well at Porirua Park, we’re a really hard team to score on at home so I think we’re going to be okay.

“We’re good when we’re cool, calm, and collected, that’s where we thrive and we also do really well in adversity so if I’m Brisbane I’m worried because we’re a team that’s shown that we come back and we come back hard.”

Wellington Phoenix women’s fans at Porirua Park. Elias Rodriguez / www.photosport.nz

It’s expected that as many as 6000 fans could fill Porirua Park on Sunday and Woods had a message for Brisbane Roar.

“Good luck with our fans, I think we have the best fans in the league, they ride behind us no matter what the weather, the time, the score, all the way to the last minute… they’re going to be loud, they’re going to be cheerful so good luck. They’re important I think they’re going to get us through that game just as much as we are, it takes a village.”

Woods said coach Bev Priestman had instilled a lot of confidence in the side, ahead of their do or die match.

Priestman has coached on the biggest stages, including guiding Canada to Olympic gold in 2020 and Woods said she thrived on finals pressure.

“You know having multiple legs, home and away, that quick turn-around. Knowing that Bev has that experience, she’s very good at her job, she brought us this far, we just have that trust in her.”

Wellington Phoenix women’s coach Bev Priestman. Marty Melville / PHOTOSPORT

Auckland FC beat Melbourne City in their elimination final in Auckland on Saturday, thanks to winning a tense penalty shootout to progress to the semi-finals of the men’s A-league.

Woods said they had to be prepared for any scenario – “so shootout, extra time, throw-ins, corners, whatever it is, you just have to be prepared.”

The last time the Phoenix women hosted the Brisbane Roar in March, they handed them a 3-0 defeat at Wellington’s Hnry Stadium.

“It’s just about playing our game… we saw what happened last time Brisbane came to Wellington and I think that just shows that we played their game [in the first leg] and they executed their game plan very well and we didn’t for ours. So I think it’s all about focusing in on us and doing what we do best.”

Woods said everyone was excited. “We all just want to play, we want to get back on that field, we want another week together, we’re not ready for this ride to be over.”

Kick-off at Porirua Park on Sunday is at 2:30pm. Melbourne City lead Melbourne Victory 1-0 in the other semi-final.

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Takahē seniors to spend retirement at Zealandia

Source: Radio New Zealand

Autahi, the takahē nesting DOC/Lisa Van Beek

A pair of senior takahē are set to make Wellington wildlife sanctuary Zealandia their new home.

The duo, 13-year-old Autahi and 16-year-old Hopi, come from the Department of Conservation’s Burwood Takahē Centre near Te Anau and will bring the number of takahē currently living wild at Zealandia to five.

Zealandia general manager conservation and restoration, Jo Ledington, told Morning Report the pair had made a special trip from the south early on Wednesday morning.

“They were captured at Burwood near Te Anau, and they’ll be driven up to Queenstown, and then a direct flight to Wellington.”

The South Island takahē are two of just 520 of the species remaining, and were welcomed by members of Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira and Ngāi Tahu, alongside Zealandia staff and volunteers.

Autahi and Hopi will join Waitaa and Bendigo, a young couple who were presumed infertile, however produced a “miracle” chick in 2025.

Hopi, the takahē nesting DOC/Lisa Van Beek

While the new residents will be welcomed, takahē are known to be territorial, so they will remain separated from the others.

Ledington said this could mean they are hard to spot for visitors for a little while until they get settled.

Zealandia chief executive Dr Danielle Shanahan said takahē have a way of marching their way into the hearts of Zealandia’s visitors and staff.

“Takahē are such an incredible example of why we should never give up when it comes to nature. A small population of the species was rediscovered in the Murchison Mountains in the 1940s, 50 years after being declared extinct.”

Takahē are usually found in inaccessible habitats such as remote mountains, meaning their presence at Zealandia allows people to see the vulnerable species.

Jo Ledington from Zealandia Lynn Freeman

Autahi and Hopi were due to arrive at Zealandia last month, but their arrival was postponed due to the floods in the Wellington region.

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Auckland psychiatrist’s app designed to make ADHD diagnoses easier

Source: Radio New Zealand

The recurring issue for GPs trying to diagnose ADHD seemed to be the lack of sufficient time. 123RF

Fifteen-minute GP visits are proving to be arguably too short to assess an ADHD diagnosis so one psychiatrist decided to make an app that would make the process more efficient.

Dr Sidhesh Phaldessai has come up with an app that would help people collate the information they need in advance before they head to their doctor’s office.

He said the more recent decision to have GPs or nurse practitioners diagnose ADHD was a good idea “in spirit” but the implementation has been an “up and down journey”.

The recurring issue seemed to be the lack of sufficient time.

“But the real bottleneck, honestly, is time, because anyone in the ADHD sector knows that it takes about two or three hours to diagnose someone.

And I don’t think any GP or nurse practitioner has more than 15 minutes in their day.”

Phaldessai knew all too well what it’s like to be on both sides of a diagnosis, having noticed his own ADHD symptoms as an adult.

He said he’d been treating people for around seven or eight years before noticing his own symptoms.

“That’s how masked ADHD can be.”

“…And you always live with ADHD, so you don’t know any different. It’s only when you start seeing that, well, a lot of this is actually my own experience as well. And then the trauma memories come up.”

Seeing the barriers in diagnosis, he decided to take matters into his own hands in creating a new app designed to help a person gather their lived experiences before heading to a clinician.

A big part of the ADHD experience is trauma and Phaldessai said the app would help patients to sort through these difficult realities in their own time, making their GP visit less stress inducing and more productive.

“Because a lot of the symptoms have a moral tag to it, like you’re called lazy or forgetful or you’re just not trying hard enough.”

“And quite often in clinic, I see people come in and they literally freeze when you ask them to describe their symptoms because they are recollecting trauma memories.”

The app has now attracted worldwide attention, being handpicked to feature at a digital health expo in Melbourne this month.

Phaldessai said in speaking to colleagues across the UK and Ireland the waitlist was over four to five years and even closer to home it wasn’t looking good.

“Across Australia, it’s probably a couple of years at least before anyone gets to see a specialist. And the economic impact of undiagnosed ADHD is huge.

So I’m kind of really optimistic that the tech solves a real world problem.”

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Motorists enjoy the wait as convoys continue through Awakino Gorge

Source: Radio New Zealand

Bruce Belcher and Monty took the opportunity to stretch their legs ahead of their convoy leaving Awakino. Robin Martin/RNZ

Motorists queuing for convoys through the Awakino Gorge on State Highway 3 are taking advantage of their idling time to chat with fellow travellers, walk their dogs or even do a spot of crocheting.

The Waikato gorge has reopened for one-way convoys throughout the day and night at weekends, but is open only during the night and early hours of the morning on weekdays.

The road through the gorge shut for slips on 18 April.

At dusk on Tuesday the line of trucks, cars and campers at Ladies Mile stretched back almost to Awakino Village in the distance.

Hamiltonian Dave Pretty was one of those waiting for the 6.30pm convoy.

He’d been visiting his unwell father in Taranaki.

“I’m just on the way home and I thought I’m not going State Highway 43. I don’t like that road I got crook, so I don’t mind sitting in the queue and chatting to people really.”

Pretty had been queuing for a while.

“I got down here at 4.30pm, but I just stopped at Mōkau and I thought if I have to stop in the car for a few hours I don’t mind.”

Hamiltonian Dave Pretty and Bulklines driver Kevin Hanning enjoyed a chat while waiting for the 6.30pm convoy to set off. Robin Martin/RNZ

He’d been having a chin-wag with Bulklines driver Kevin Hanning who was enjoying catching up with people.

“We just walk around and communicate and stuff like that find out what’s going on. Talk to one another. A lot of people don’t do that now days the old communications long gone.”

James Tāne was another Bulklines driver.

He was happy to wait … and get some housework done in the meantime.

“Otherwise you’ve got to go right around and that’s another couple of hours on the end of the say, sort of thing, at the end of your trip.

“It’s all good you get to have a break and do some maintenance on the truck, a bit of a clean out inside the cab.”

Manaia’s Kim Tangaroa was headed to Hamilton for a medical appointment.

“I’ve got to get cataract surgery, so I’m going up to get my eyes… they’re doing the shape for my lenses, to replace my lenses in my eyes.”

She said the procedure couldn’t be done for her in New Plymouth.

Kim and Walter Tangaroa were headed to Hamilton for a medical appointment. Robin Martin/RNZ

Meanwhile, Whakatāne’s Bruce Belcher was exercising his pooch.

“I’m not quite sure who’s walking who actually. This is Monty the Mutt and we don’t usually walk on a State Highway and the lady in the house there let him run in the paddock, so that was cool.”

Monty was taking things in his stride.

“He’s quite happy. He fits in, don’t you reckon, he looks happy?”

Abby Kewin and Caitlin Barnfather also had an appointment in Hamilton.

They were prepared for a wait.

“We brought dinner, I’ve got crochet, we’ve got a film downloaded on the phone, so we’re all set up for a long stay.”

Kewin said crochet was the perfect tonic for such occasions.

“I actually always crochet on long car journeys. So, I’m making a baby blanket at the moment for my friend and I can get most of it done.

“We were at Taupō at the weekend and had to travel south to Whanganui and back up again and I’ve pretty much made it since then.”

Caitlin Barnfather, left, and Abby Kewin came prepared with dinner and crochet. Robin Martin/RNZ

Jill hadn’t been waiting long.

“I’ve come down from New Plymouth so I suppose three quarters of an hour.”

At that moment the convoy travelling south arrives on Ladies Mile.

“Oh, here we go, yes, another half hour and we’re away I think.”

The slip on Awakino Gorge SH3. Supplied / NZ Transport Agency

The Transport Agency was reworking the convoy schedule to improve access for communities, businesses, and the freight industry.

Convoy times overnight remain the same Wednesday and Thursday night this week.

For this coming weekend, convoys begin at 5pm Friday 8 May and continue through til 7am Tuesday 12 May.

So there would convoys on Monday during the day and night before the road closed at 7am Tuesday.

The Transport Agency was hoping to fully open Awakino Gorge in about three weeks.

The full convoy schedule was available here.

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Man with imitation handgun arrested on unrelated charges in Auckland

Source: Radio New Zealand

Armed officers responded to reports of a person with a gun at about 5.20pm. RNZ / REECE BAKER

Auckland police say they have arrested a man with an imitation handgun.

Armed officers had responded to reports of a person armed with a gun in Western Springs at about 5.20pm on Wednesday.

They found a man on the corner of Moa Road and Great North Road, who dropped the imitation weapon when confronted.

The 30-year-old was taken into custody, with police saying they had been looking for him on unrelated matters.

Police said he would face charges over the incident.

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Court hears moment car struck Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming in Nelson carpark

Source: Radio New Zealand

Constable Jonathan Fris. POOL/TVNZ

A policeman has told the High Court how two of his fellow officers did not have enough time to get out of the path of a speeding car, before the collision that sent them flying through the air in a Nelson carpark.

Hayden Tasker, 33, is on trial for murdering senior sergeant Lyn Fleming and seriously injuring senior sergeant Adam Ramsay in the early hours of New Year’s Day, in 2025. He has admitted three charges of dangerous driving, but has denied that he intended to kill or hurt the pair.

Constable Jonathan Fris told the Christchurch High Court how he was working that New Years Eve and had driven a patrol car into the Buxton Square carpark shortly after 2am to deliver a summons book to another officer.

He was talking to Ramsay through the driver’s window, with Fleming standing close by.

“We just heard this really loud accelerating, and in my mind I was thinking, well, that’s a vehicle travelling way too fast in the carpark.”

Fris said he looked over to see the car coming diagonally towards him.

He said there was no time to react and Ramsay and Fleming managed to “get out half a yell and not even take sort of half a step” before the car struck them.

“There was a flash of white as the car went past my window and just heard a massive bang and then sort of, I looked up, I could see just their bodies and like police uniform tumbling through the air.”

Hayden Tasker. The Press / Iain McGregor

He said he saw Ramsay hit the ground by the other patrol car, while Fleming went “flying through the air and disappeared out of sight”.

Fris said he was in disbelief and thought it was an accident, until he saw the Honda Odyssey change direction and drive away.

“I didn’t see any brake lights. It didn’t look to slow down. It didn’t stop to assist or render aid or anything. It just took off.”

He tried to get out of the patrol car but the door was jammed shut. He said he was trying to see where the Honda Odyssey had gone, when he heard yelling and saw the car drive towards another police patrol car and ram it.

Fris said he drove his patrol car around to box the Odyssey in an attempt to prevent it from fleeing and he saw other officers apprehend the driver.

Once out of the car, he went to check on Ramsay, who was lying on his side with blood coming from his head and then Fleming, who was on her back and unresponsive. He then directed paramedics to the pair when they arrived on the scene.

Maxwell Malcolm. POOL/TVNZ

Maxwell Malcolm also gave evidence on Wednesday. He was walking across Buxton Square in the early hours of New Year’s Day with a friend, when he heard a car revving its engine.

He told the court he assumed it was “probably another hooligan”, but the sound got louder and he saw a car driving towards them.

“I remember just jumping out of the way and [the car] was centimetres close to my left leg.”

Malcolm said he was in “fight or flight mode” and checking his surroundings, when he saw the car loop back and hit Ramsay and Fleming.

“We’re like, we need to find cover so we ended up running behind one of the trees.”

A witness, who sought witness protection and can’t be identified, had been in central Nelson to celebrate New Years Eve with friends and was sitting in Buxton Square in the early hours of the morning.

The woman said she watched the two police officers get hit by the car and do “somersaults in the air, like how you see in movies when people get hit”.

She heard someone call for help and said she went towards Ramsay, who had less people around him. She was crouched down beside him, with one arm on the patrol car when it was rammed, shunting the car forwards and she “felt her arm snap”.

Her arm was broken in two places and required two surgeries, to insert and remove metal plates and screws.

Katya Armitage, who had also been in central Nelson to celebrate New Years Eve, told the court how she had been in Buxton Square with her sister that morning.

The pair had bought kebabs, used the toilets in the centre of the carpark and had stepped back out into the square, when a car went flying past them and Armitage saw it hit Fleming.

“The car was going so fast that she actually flipped onto her back and rolled underneath the car and skidded, and you could just hear her vest sliding against the concrete and landing almost in front of us.”

Armitage said the driver then turned back to head in the direction he had come from.

“His wheels squeaked as he was turning around the tree, realigned his car and went full speed at the parked police car.”

The Crown argues Hayden Tasker had murderous intent when he drove his white Honda Odyssey at the two officers, while his defence says he was depressed and drunk at the time, and the tragedy was a result of him trying to take his own life.

The trial continues on Thursday, with more witnesses to be called by the Crown.

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Costa Rica becomes 13th member of CPTPP

Source: Radio New Zealand

The continued expansion of the CPTPP is important for growing New Zealand’s preferential access to markets,” the Trade Minister Todd McClay said. RNZ / Mark Papalii

Costa Rica has become the thirteenth member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, with New Zealand exports to the Central American nation set to benefit from next year.

It becomes the second nation to accede to the CPTPP outside the original membership, following the United Kingdom.

Entry isn’t expected until the second half of 2027, but trade minister Todd McClay said it meant over 94 percent of New Zealand’s exports to Costa Rica would be duty-free from day one, and 99 percent within ten years.

“The continued expansion of the CPTPP is important for growing New Zealand’s preferential access to markets, as well as in response to increased challenges to the rules-based trade system,” he said.

Along with New Zealand, the other members of the agreement are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Australian trade minister Don Farrell said members of the CPTPP demonstrated they could “meet, implement and adhere to the rules and standards of the Agreement, and have a demonstrated track record of complying with trade commitments.”

China, Taiwan, Ecuador, Uruguay, Ukraine, Indonesia, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, and Cambodia have all applied to join the agreement.

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$180 million boost to healthcare in the Otago Central Lakes area announced

Source: Radio New Zealand

Waitaki MP Miles Anderson, Health Minister Simeon Brown and Southland MP Joseph Mooney at the announcement in Queenstown on Wednesday.  Katie Todd

An expansion to Lakes District Hospital’s emergency department in Queenstown will begin within months as part of a $180 million boost to healthcare in the Otago Central Lakes area.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said Health New Zealand’s board had agreed in principle to invest $128 million in new operating funding over four years from July 2027 with another $52 million invested in capital funding.

Health officials promised last year to assess long-standing inequities and develop a clinical services plan for the area, as residents were often travelling hours for basic care.

At an announcement in Queenstown on Wednesday, after signing off on that plan, Brown said the money would expand primary, diagnostic, maternity, obstetric and gynaecology, and outpatient services as well as mental health and addiction support.

“Every patient who can be treated here locally in this community is one fewer patient having to drive hours to Dunedin or Invercargill,” he said.

One of the first visible changes would be the emergency department expansion at Lakes District Hospital with work beginning in six to eight months, Brown said.

The hospital had 12 inpatient beds and 10 emergency department beds at present.

“This hospital does an amazing job – I think it’s around 18,000 to 20,000 presentations on an annual basis – and, of course, there’s huge numbers of visitors who come through this community and who utilise this hospital.

“But ultimately with expanded demand – I think it’s a seven to eight percent increase in demand year-on-year, which is enormous – there is a need for more space,” he said.

Other changes already underway included free blood tests, expanded access to x-rays and ultrasounds, and telehealth psychiatry, Brown said.

“This is about making incremental improvements to increase the number of services that are delivered here,” he said.

A key focus was supporting more people to give birth locally rather than travelling to hospitals in Dunedin and Southland, Brown said.

Almost half the planned births – not including urgent transfers – in Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago happened outside of the region, according to the Southern Lakes Health Trust.

“The Health New Zealand board has agreed to the direction of travel for a new local maternity model and Health NZ will begin working closely with midwives, obstetricians, GPs, and other frontline clinicians to design a service that is safe, sustainable and responsive to local needs,” Brown said.

Focus on public services

The Southern Lakes Health Trust – whose steering committee included Otago and Central Lakes MPs, mayors and clinicians – has been advocating for a new Southern Lakes Hospital.

It wanted Health NZ and the government to consider a privately-financed, but publicly-run model.

A $300 million private surgical hospital was approved as part of a health precinct for Wānaka last year.

However, Brown said his focus was on access to publicly-funded services.

“I want to see increased access to publicly funded services in this community for patients to be able to get the treatments, the diagnostics, the services that they need here in this community,” he said.

‘Statements of intent’

Health Action Wānaka has been campaigning for more equitable health services in the Upper Clutha area, highlighting significant shortfalls and systemic barriers a year ago.

Chair Monique Mayze said Wednesday’s funding announcement was welcome and she was pleased to see the advocacy of her group and others had been heard by the government.

However, there had been “many statements of intent and planning” – and her group wanted to see results, she said.

Her top priority was free, 24/7 urgent care in Wānaka.

“Importantly that must be equitable so that means that if you were at an urgent care or ED in the cities in New Zealand you wouldn’t pay. We don’t think we should have to pay here for the same symptoms to be looked at, so equitable urgent care is really important,” she said.

The government’s plan felt like “catching up and getting us to a level playing field and addressing inequity” – but it eventually needed to go further, Mayze said.

“Obviously we’re rapidly growing so for the future we need to look at infrastructure.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand