Solving problems: mobile healthcare

Rethinking the conventional ‘one size fits all’ approach makes sense on all accounts, says the group’s Chief Executive and former nurse Mark Eager.

“You don’t always need to go to a hospital for treatment. We were creating issues by sending everyone to a central place. There are a whole lot of services that can be delivered to communities around New Zealand if they’re well-coordinated, efficient and reliable, which we’ve proven to be,” he says.

What began as the brainchild of urologist Dr Stuart Gowland three decades ago, a truck and trailer called the Lithotripsy Unit began travelling up and down the country for the non-invasive treatment of kidney stones. 

A Surgical Unit joined in 2002 and another is expected next year. The truck is kitted with an entire operating theatre for low-risk, elective day surgeries including colonoscopies, gastroscopies and paediatric dental operations, which Mark says is an answer to the “nationwide health crisis” of unhealthy teeth and gums in children.

Today, these trucks have benefitted 50,000 patients from Dargaville to Gore.

More than 850,000 Kiwis live and work rurally. The privately owned units receive Ministry of Health funding to offer specialised services for these patients, treating them where they live and work while also creating opportunities for local medical staff.

“We bring the surgical units and the specialist staff like an anaesthetist, surgeon, charge and recovery nurses but we also utilise staff from the local town,” Mark says. “When the nursing staff are local, it becomes their service, not someone else coming in and taking over.”

For young patients, taking the ‘scary factor’ out of a procedure is something Mark also prides his team on. He recalls an instance in Hāwera, during a routine operation to insert grommets. “It was a nice sunny day. There was a group of mums with their kids playing under the poplar tree. That was the pre-admission area, and beneath the oak tree was recovery. Kids would come out from their operation a bit sleepy and wake up in mum’s arms under the tree. We had all the proper equipment, but it was a much nicer experience for everyone and not nearly as traumatic.”