Birthing unit vow fails to satisfy

A National Party promise to provide half the money for a birthing unit in Wanaka, if it is elected next year, would only partly solve maternity service problems.

That was the verdict of a some who listened to party leader Simon Bridges and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean outline National's proposal, at a meeting in Wanaka yesterday.

Mr Bridges and Ms Dean suggested a National government would put up half of the estimated half a million dollars of capital for the unit, with the other half being raised by a charitable trust.

Asked if providing maternity services was not the job of the Southern District Health Board, Ms Dean said: "It is, and they aren't."

She pointed to other community-owned health facilities that "worked extremely well", such as the privately owned Charlotte Jean Maternity Hospital in Alexandra.

Ms Dean said a community-owned facility in Wanaka was more likely than a DHB facility to deliver what the community wanted.

Mr Bridges noted Wanaka's growth, and that 153 babies were born in the district over the past year.

"You deserve to have the sort of services that are comparable with what happens in Auckland central or happens in Wellington central."

He acknowledged politicians generally "liked bricks and mortar", and Save Our Wanaka Midwives Group member Kimberley Davis took him up on that point.

"It's a far more complex solution than just building a primary birthing unit in one town.

"It's communities all over New Zealand that are remote from hospitals - from birthing facilities - like Wanaka is."

Ms Davis said there was an "enormous amount of support" for a birthing unit in Wanaka but there was a feeling "we shouldn't have to be personally accountable as a community for providing what is a fundamental health service".

"Simon Bridges making a promise that if we vote National into government, the maternity crisis will be fixed, it rings a bit hollow to me.

"This is an issue that has been building for much longer than the last two years," Ms Davis said.