Wairarapa COMMENT

May 2008. After having been a Te Omanga Hospice volunteer for the last ten years I know this: We have lost a fantastic service which has been carefully build up by dedicated specialist nurses, public donations and volunteers. It is ironic that after months of negotiations and a number of commissioned reports, we have ended up without our Te Omanga service. Will the Wairarapa DHB provide a better service? Most of us are not regular users of palliative care, and therefore this will be impossible to measure. We can always commission another report in the future to tell us “yes, it’s better”. Tom van Bodegraven

In the Wairarapa Times Age of July 2, 2008 I read: Mr Francis also attended and said he was disappointed the DHB were not given right of reply to comments made by volunteers' spokeswoman Suzie Adamson, which, he said, "attempted to paint the DHB in a bad light". Has Bob Francis given any thought as to why the Wairarapa community sees the DHB in a bad light? Charles Goodin.

The text bellow is taken from the USA based RedOrbit newspaper: http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1460770/wairarapa_plan_for_community_hospice/ . Tom van Bodegraven.

"Wairarapa Plan for Community Hospice

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 July 2008, 15:00 CDT

By KATTERNS, Tanya

WAIRARAPA residents have voted overwhelmingly in favour of exploring plans for a community- owned and operated hospice.

More than 600 people, upset by health chiefs moving to axe Te Omanga Hospice in favour of taking over the palliative care role itself from September, packed the town hall in Masterton on Monday night to debate options.

They backed a plan by hospice fundraisers to do a study to determine whether a standalone privately funded in-patient hospice could be achieved.

"It has happened in other small areas, and there is no reason why that can't be achieved if the will and community drive is there," Te Omanga Hospice fundraiser Suzie Adamson said.

Meanwhile, Wairarapa health chiefs are trying to stitch together a deal with the sidelined Te Omanga in the hope of drawing on the hospice's specialised skills.

Wairarapa District Health Board, which has defended its move by saying it was about expanding services rather than saving money, says it is negotiating with Te Omanga to continue to provide medical specialist input and 24-hour telephone advice.

It is also discussing the possibility of leasing the Te Omanga house in Lincoln Rd as the base for the new service.

Te Omanga chief executive Biddy Harford said that, if it agreed to the deal, Te Omanga could provide weekly clinics using its specialist doctors.

"We want something there to provide that specialist cover and if it means we agree to a contract to do that ourselves, the people will be looked after."

The hospice was still unhappy with the decision to have its service closed. "Our service closes on August 31 and we will merely be contracted. The effect of that means that we won't have the hands- on nursing service care we have provided to patients and their families for the past decade."

The new service — to be named the Wairarapa Palliative Care Service — would fully absorb Te Omanga's current roster of patients at their homes or in contracted beds in private hospitals.

15/04/2008. I am intrigued by the term "Shed". I heard it mentioned in a local pub and also heard there were 27 sheds in Masterton. Does anyone have any idea what a "Shed" is? Richard Clark.

Yes, there is a lot of Shed stuff in NZ. There is even a shed magazine. -Tom

07/12/2007 In our region we have many fine web resources for locals and visitors alike. Just think how much better all this could be if the numerous web resources decided to interlink with each other. Imagine if they all linked so as to create one super information network, rich in content and diversity.

What we have now is a myriad of fabulous building blocks waiting to be joined together with digital mortar. These isolated blocks have led to some overlap and in some cases duplication of services. It would be fantastic if local agencies such as Go Wairarapa Wairarapa and the local councils could give a lead and develop an interlinking policy. It would surely be desirable if visitors to the Go Wairarapa website could just type into the search box "Walking tracks" or "Horse riding" and be presented with useful information about all the great walking tracks and horse riding facilities throughout our region with links to the websites of these providers. Or when "Go Wairarapa" makes a reference to, for example, MainArtery or aratoi, why do they not simply provide a link (as we have done here) to these great art attractions?. Go Wairarapa does not do this, and so we keep our visitors in the dark (see sample under "Arts & Culture" on this Go Wairarapa page).

I am calling on our local bodies to link and connect our vibrant community on the Web. —TomvanBodgraven

09/12/07 Thank you Tom for drawing our attention to this anomaly. It is yet another example of the way Go Wairarapa acts in a very "Go Wairarapa-centric" way that seems to work for no one, indeed, not even for Go Wairarapa. How can we act to change this state of affairs? Gaye Sutton

11/12/2007 thank you both for this article, my two years in the WAI have given me a very frustrating view on the cohesion and sense of identity that appears to be so disconnected. Communication is the key to any change, Awareness, then an attitude of acceptance followed closely by action. All done in a democratically principled manner of course :) Go Wairarapa be a good case in point as are all the "Friends Of" committees. Separating the WAI from the WELL would be a great start. WAI NOT WAIRARAPA? Richard Clark

13/12/07 - Great to catch up with the Wairarapa Wiki at last, thanks Tom. I too would like to see more cohesion between the groups, just to conserve energy and ultimately for information seekers ie customers. Perhaps now that Go Wairarapa has become Destination Wairarapa there may be a shift to more linking of information. I feel at the moment that there is a tremendous amount of money being poured into ensuring the public know where the wine trails are but very little support is being offered to artists who are trying to give the public 'art trail' information. Would really like to see tourism supporting organisations get in behind this cause as well. Ultimately we're all trying to provide something for the regions visitors. Sara Sarich.