1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:01,880
Speaker 1: More pre budget noise from the government, this time one

2
00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:04,080
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty four million over the four years, which

3
00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,000
Speaker 1: will buy five new twenty four seven urgent healthcare services.

4
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:08,840
Speaker 1: Have ninety eight percent of us within an hour of

5
00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:11,720
Speaker 1: urgent care, rural areas will get round the clock on

6
00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:14,760
Speaker 1: call support. The chief executive of Rural Healthcare Network, doctor

7
00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,720
Speaker 1: Grant Davidson's with us. Grant, Morning, morning, Mike. Make you happy.

8
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:22,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are happy that this is a FI priority

9
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:25,400
Speaker 2: area for us. That's finely getting some attention, So that

10
00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:25,880
Speaker 2: is good.

11
00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:28,440
Speaker 1: Do we know what all this money buys? All we

12
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:30,760
Speaker 1: ever get is numbers. We've got millions here and millions

13
00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:33,400
Speaker 1: over there. What's it buying? Is it value for money?

14
00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:34,199
Speaker 1: Does anyone know?

15
00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,519
Speaker 2: No, there's no detail released, and as we know, the

16
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,800
Speaker 2: devil's always in the detail. So I've searched the documents

17
00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:43,959
Speaker 2: that are available, and all we can see is we're

18
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 2: going to get seventy improved rural urgent and after ours services.

19
00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:52,240
Speaker 2: And no idea how much of that forty one million

20
00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,600
Speaker 2: a year will go to rural compared to the urgent

21
00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:56,040
Speaker 2: care clinics and urban areas.

22
00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:57,880
Speaker 1: Glad you said that, because I looked for the same thing,

23
00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:02,120
Speaker 1: couldn't find it. So are we desperate for better service

24
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:04,760
Speaker 1: in the rural communities of New Zealand.

25
00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:10,520
Speaker 2: We're absolutely desperate. The animal mortality rate and rural is

26
00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:13,360
Speaker 2: two times that of urban and that's one of the

27
00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:18,959
Speaker 2: key indicators. I guess minimal mortality is those deaths that

28
00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,560
Speaker 2: could be prevented by early intervention. So we've got a

29
00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:23,880
Speaker 2: major problem.

30
00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,959
Speaker 1: Reality versus theory. So if we all want a tertiary

31
00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,640
Speaker 1: hospital around the corner versus this is a small country

32
00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,520
Speaker 1: and it's difficult geographically. So let's be real. How far

33
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:36,600
Speaker 1: short are we?

34
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,480
Speaker 2: Oh we're a long way sure, but we're reality is

35
00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:41,520
Speaker 2: never going to get that. But what we do need

36
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:45,000
Speaker 2: is if you want if you need urgent here in

37
00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:48,600
Speaker 2: a rural area, those rural people expect to drive, you know,

38
00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 2: some distance, but then they need someone there who has

39
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,960
Speaker 2: hands on and can help them. And that's what we're

40
00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,640
Speaker 2: hoping to get through improved funding for those clinics.

41
00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:03,800
Speaker 1: Big issue is the staff. Are you hopeful on that?

42
00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:05,560
Speaker 1: I mean, where do they come from? Overseas?

43
00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:11,639
Speaker 2: On? Assuming over fifty percent of the rural gps, for example,

44
00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:16,799
Speaker 2: are internationally trained, that's right, So staffing there's a strange

45
00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:20,000
Speaker 2: comment in the press release going out that Health New

46
00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,880
Speaker 2: Zealand staffing has never been better. Well, you'd have to

47
00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:25,920
Speaker 2: ask that than that, but in terms of primary care

48
00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:30,040
Speaker 2: it's never been worse. So staffing isn't issue.

49
00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,079
Speaker 1: Okay, Grunt, appreciate it. Grant Davidson, who's the chief executive

50
00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:34,120
Speaker 1: Rural Health Network.

51
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,360
Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

52
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,560
Speaker 2: news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

53
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:42,160
Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.