Reality check, SDHB...

1) You're told if you're worried to call Healthline. You do, and they tell you to go to the emergency room every time. So that's what you do.

2) GP visit costs keep rising, urgent Drs even more so.
3) Fewer GP's due to aging GP population means shorter clinic hours and clinic closures.
4) Anyone ever heard of poverty?

5) Community social services supporting the health of vulnerable people have had funding axed.
6) Relying on expensive, sometimes downright dangerous and rude locums to staff your hospital isn't getting your budget in the black very effectively.
7) Unfortunately the world cant cancel evenings and weekends

8) Many GPs are booked solid for up to a week and cant/wont provide acute care appointments

I've had absolutely shocking and absolutely brilliant care at Southland Hospital's A&E. Unfortunately I'm there a lot due to disability. So are many of my friends who have also had wonderful & awful encounters. But seeking emergency care for your health shouldnt be a lottery.

Stop wringing your hands and begging the public to not get sick please because you cant afford it. We all know that, and as a province we are all rooting for the SDHB to have permanent staff, lower costs, bigger budgets and the latest technology.

But we still cant help getting sick. Or being worried about our feverish baby. Nor can we help being too broke to seek private after hours health care, or in some cases, even see our GP.

I really support helpful initiatives like the DHB’s nurse-led care at A&E, which seems to be helping, and hope one day for funding for an urgent health care facility for struggling Southerners who deserve and need the same care as those who can afford to be proactive about their health care. And thats only going to happen if the Nats wake up and remember not everyone's as rich as them.