Wayne Brown

THERE ARE some days as chairman of the Auckland District Health Board when positive surprises pop up that reinforce why one tackles such an impossible, thankless task.  They also remind one of the amazing changes happening in our country.  One recent Thursday was one of those days.

 

 

Langimalie Welcomes the Minister of Health Hon. Pete Hodgson 

 

The new health minister is bravely visiting each of the 20 district health boards as he tries to get a handle on health.  He wanted to not only visit the big hospital and the leading clinicians, but also to visit a primary healthcare organization. So instead of one of the big ones, such as Procare, we visited the Tongan Health Society PHO, or Langimalie as it is known in Onehunga.

It is easy for many in society to dismiss efforts to target spending at certain population groups, but when you visit an organization such as Langimalie it makes you recognize what makes New Zealand different from the rest of the world, and how much some of these targeted funds are appreciated when they hit the right target.

 

The crowd on the pavement gave an early indication that this wasn’t just another visit to just another health organization by just another group of mildly resented health officials.

Leis were draped over our shoulders and hymns and prayers were sung and said.


Traditional formal dress seemed to be mandatory, and the welcome from these quiet, humble but generous and kind people was almost overwhelming.  They really did care that we had come, and it was an honour to both the Tongans and the minister to have the visit.  Their leaders did care about serving the people and it showed in their speeches, reminding us of the days before we got cynical about what is promised but not always delivered.

It’s the simple messages that will determine what our health is like in decades to come, and it is these messages that groups such as the Tongan PHO are delivering in their own way.  Dragging in community members to exercise to Tongan music is starting to get the message the change in diet and way of life has not been all good news for these people since they arrived here.

After prayers to a God who is very real to them (and who must be well informed because he was asked about three-letter acronyms such as PHOs), we had wide-ranging discussions before a lunch that showed encouraging signs healthy eating, with fish and salad prominent, although the cream donuts could have been dispensed with.

 

These simple, low-key targeted health dollars are a great investment.  It was interesting to note that they are providing a primary health care at doctors’ fee levels that the rest of us would find most attractive and which will put overdue pressure on what some patients are charged elsewhere.

Fresh ways of delivering health services are being discovered by groups such as this.  Pacific Island PHOs are using the strong church links with parish nurses as a core mechanism to get to their populations.  Mapping show where there are concentrations of Pacific people and their churches in Auckland.  The concentrations will form the core of healthy village action zones to pioneer a way of lifting their health performance, which will benefit all of us.

 

Such a day certainly puts into perspective the hours of untangling funding formulae of labyrinthine complexity, squaring off for the task of deciding which health demand gets the pressured dollar and unraveling the bewildering array of information demands from the Ministry of Health and parliamentary questions, often sought solely for the reason of raising some flagging political career by people miles away from the true caring of the Tongan Health Society’s members.

 

Makes you feel good and almost makes paying taxes seem worth it.

 

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