Assyrian idiom: One hand can’t clap

THE NUHSPAPER

MAY 2012ISSUE 3 VOL 1

THE NEWTOWN UNION HEALTH SERVICE INFORMATION NEWS SHEET

OUTREACH IMMUNISATION SERVICE

The Outreach Immunistion Service consists of two of NUHS nurses, Lou-ise French and Sherryn Strickland.

They work part-time and are based in Riddiford House, next door to NUHS. They visit children in the Wellington and Porirua region who are regis-tered with NUHS /WellHealth Trust.

The service offers childhood imm-unsations to babies and children in their home, for those families who for many reasons, fi nd it diffi cult to come into the health centre.

Referrals to the service are from the nurses working at NUHS, plunket nurses, and sometimes from the families themselves. If a child is late for their vaccinations, the nurses will contact the families by telephone, or visit them at home to offer the ser-vice. A suitable time is made, and the nurses will visit again, bringing the vaccines in a chilly bin, along with all their other necessary equip-ment. Treats for the children are also offered, eg bubbles, balloons and stickers, which are popular!

The 20 minute post vaccination wait

which the nurses spend at the child’s home is helpful for many parents, who may wish to discuss other health issues. The nurses can give advice, and encourage families to visit their own nurse or Doctor if they think it is needed.

The Outreach Immunisation nurses work closely with the other mem-bers of the health team atNUHS. Their work model has proved suc-cessful, with the PHO having some of the best immunisation rates in the region and country!

Happy birthday The SENDAM Orchestra, who celebrated their fi fth birthday on Friday May 11. Keep your ears open for more exciting news coming soon. Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NewtownUnionHealth

STAFF UPDATESWe say farewell and good luck to Lesley Shaw as she departs the Admin team, and the wider NUHS service. Lesley heads for a well earmed retirement after YEARS for her spectacular support of the ser-vice and its kaupapa. Nurse Karoline Lal sadly left NUHS for a position closer to home.

NEW FACEBOOK PAGE

NUHS has a new Facebook page. If you are a facebook user, then please visit the page and press the LIKE button to stay up to date with whats happening in the service.IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is not for clinical issues, for ALL health matter please continue to con-tact the service through the usual channels. Please do not attempt to contact the service via this Face-book page.

Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/NewtownUnionHealth

THE WILD THINGS

The NUHS Social Club recently took a wild excursion into the Orongorongos.

Lesley Shaw meets Giant Weta, Somes Island

THE MANAGER’S CORNER NUHS CHILD HEALTHOn Thursday 3 May NUHS Policy Board called a public meeting to notify the community of the cuts tofunding that will be taking effect from 1 July 2012. The value of the contract not for renewal is $274,000which is 7.9% of the annual income of the service. NUHS has also had to raise the fees for the fi rst time in more than 15 years and the meeting was seen as a chance for community to respond. The other purpose of the meeting was to share this information with the community and to provide the opportunity for feedback to guide the board with the diffi cult decisions that are ahead.

The meeting was well attended by more than 90 people and resulted in robust feedback/discussionon where to from here. Of those communities who attended it was felt strongly there should be acommunity response to the cuts and there is a group of interested people who have elected to take thisfurther.

There were many valuable sugges-tions that came from the fl oor and these will be considered by theboard at the next Policy Board meet-

Autumn is upon us. First frosts.Walls, blankets and pay checks thinner.

Children are great! Children should grow up having fun, learning with PLAY. They should be warm, fed, loved and be allowed to be children: exploring, experimenting, throwing, rolling, skipping, running, laughing, climbing, falling and getting back up, playing joyfully.

That’s really the goal of the NUHS child health team, that health will not be a barrier to any of our children and their families to maximise their potentials.

I want to be able to celebrate the great things the NUHS Child Health Team and the greater community have achieved. We have decreased the incidence of rickets in our com-munity. We have worked with fami-lies and across sectors to improve management of eczema and skin infections. We host a Child Develop-ment Clinic 4 times per year where children with speech or learning dif-fi culties are assessed by a specialist Developmental Paediatrician, in a timely fashion, in an environmentthey already know and feel safe in.

We meet regularly with the public health nurses who work in local primary schools. We meet with NUHS midwives once every two weeks to follow up our pregnant women and their families through their pregnancies. We have worked with Berhampore School to establish the Berhampore Playgroup in the Berhampore School Hall. Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-10:30 am. That’s how important we think

PLAY is in the great scheme of things.

But I can’t really celebrate at the moment. I want to protest.

Immunisation of under 2’s in NUHS con-tributed to reaching award winning levels due to hard work by the PHO Child Health and outreach team. The outreach immuni-sations has been reduced by the DHB.

The warm and healthy homes pro-grammes around the country are the most important public health initiatives in the last decade but they need to go further. Landlords should be forced to provide dry and insulated accommodation. The children of our community suffer because of cold, damp homes.Whole families sleep in one room to keep warm. Crowded housing causes disease.

We at NUHS have been forced to intro-duce a charge for school age children when they see a doctor, as part of our overall fi nancial survival plan.

Dr Annie Judkins

Policy Board chair Glen Baron, Kaumatua Te Urikore (Julius) Waenga, Dr Ben Gray, Nurse Fou Etuale

ing on Thursday 31 May. The next Community Advi-sory Groupmeeting is Tuesday 15 May, 4:00pm at NUHS. See you there.

Fiona Osten

CCDHB Consultant Jeremy Tuohy, NUHS Midwife’s Bronwen Moloughney, Mary-Clare Reilly & Karen Labone

MP Annette King, Dr Annie Judkins & Esho Youhanna at Berhampore Playgroup.

Pat Bolster, Community member addresses the meeting