It has taken several years of lobbying, but the Māpua community has welcomed a resident District Health Nurse clinic, which will initially be open two mornings a week.
Raewyn Kaihe was warmly welcomed last week as the first resident health nurse at the new nursing base, located in the front office space of the Hills Community Church in Aranui Rd.
Raewyn has expressed her delight in now having an accessible clinic for local community residents. The clinic is to be utilised for chronic or mild conditions that require regular treatment or ongoing medical support, and can be accessed through a referral from a doctor.
Opening hours are Tuesdays and Fridays from 9am-1pm, and there is hope that the hours will be increased over time.
The project involved negotiations between the Te Whatu Ora, Māpua Community Wellbeing Trust and the Māpua Community Hub Working Group.
The working group’s Elena Meredith says that the organisations needed to “jump through 5000 hoops, write five million letters” and do a huge amount of lobbying to get the service in place.
“But we’ve done it and it’s open,” she says with satisfaction.
She says that one of the major factors was that Māpua is a growing community, and the advocates wanted to minimise the need to travel outside of the township, while maximising the ability to have a community that can meet all of its residents’ needs.
Representatives of the community groups also expressed their delight at celebrating the tangible beginnings of the long-planned Māpua Community Wellbeing Hub, which will offer a range of community services and programmes complementing those already operating in the Māpua Community Hall.
