The health of rural communities will be a fresh focus at this year’s Ford Ranger New Zealand Rural Games.
The Mobile Health unit, which provides everything from elective day surgery to clinical networking, is attending this year’s Ford Ranger New Zealand Rural Games with a focus on surgical services.
Mobile Health Chief Executive Mark Eager says it’s incredibly important to support rural communities to access the health services they need.
“There are 700,000 people living in rural New Zealand,”
Mr Eager says
“To put that in perspective, our rural communities equate to the second largest city in the country. With so many of us living outside of the main city centres, it’s important that we make health services more readily available to those who may not be able to access the help they need, by bringing the services to where they live and work.”
Mr Eager says the Rural Games will give the unit a chance to show rural New Zealanders what Mobile Health is all about and to make sure rural communities know there are services available for them.
“We’ve operated on over 27,000 patients in rural New Zealand, but there are still people who don’t know we are available to help them – so during the Rural Games we will be opening our theatre to the public and hosting ‘live’ operations throughout the weekend.”
The Mobile Health surgical team will put on a show creating realistic mock operations for attendees to watch.
“A mobile surgical unit is very unique, but once inside it is much like a standard operating theatre. The unit contains a modern and well-equipped theatre space, which has been specifically designed and built for elective day surgery in rural areas. We encourage people to come down, book in and see the operating theatre in action.”
The Mobile Surgical unit travels through much of New Zealand, regularly crossing between islands on the Interislander Cook Strait ferry.
