July 2020 - Southern Charity Hospital

Otago, we need you.

The Southland Charity Hospital is calling on members of Otago communities to lend their support to its cause. While it is named after the region in which its idea formed – the hospital is part of the legacy left by Winton man Blair Vining, who lost his epic battle with bowel cancer in late 2019 – the Southland Charity Hospital will serve the people of both Southland and Otago.

Southland Charity Hospital board member and wife of Mr Vining, Melissa Vining, says once operational the hospital will provide healthcare for those living throughout the Southern District Health Board Zone.

“The Southland Charity Hospital will be available for everybody south of the Waitaki River. We desperately need the help of our Otago-based brothers and sisters to get behind the Southland Charity Hospital. Our hospital is going to benefit all of us,” she says.

The Southland Charity Hospital is in the midst of a fundraising drive, encouraging the public to ‘Buy A Brick’ with proceeds donated to the hospital. The Buy A Brick campaign – which will culminate in Buy A Brick Day on 31 July – asks the public to purchase an engraved supporter’s brick, which will form the pathway from the hospital’s carpark to its building, or a commemorative plaque, which will be placed in Blair’s Garden on-site.

However, about 75 percent of supporter’s brick sales so far had come from people identified as living in the Southland region – while less than 10 percent so far had been purchased by people living in Otago, Vining says.

“Whether somebody hails from Dunedin, Oamaru, Alexandra, Stewart Island Rakiura, or Owaka, they will be able to call on the Southland Charity Hospital to meet the gaps in healthcare access that impact all of our communities.”

The Southland Charity Hospital is initially aiming to reach the $1 million mark in donations. If it achieves this goal, it could begin physical work on the hospital as soon as 1 August.

“We’ve reached the halfway point so far – and we’re hoping that, if the people of Otago jump on board, we can begin work on our hospital sooner rather than later. The sooner we reach that $1 million mark, the sooner we can start helping the people of the Otago and Southland communities,” Vining says.

Founded by the community, for the community, the Southland Charity Hospital is entirely reliant on the generosity of the public – and the call for additional support from the Otago region has now been issued.

“We will not receive any Government funding,” Vining says. “That means it is absolutely crucial our communities support our cause. Without that community support, we will be unable to fulfil our goal of providing diagnosis and treatment to the members of our community who are currently unable to access healthcare through either the public or private health systems.”

Fortunately, it is not too late to register for Buy A Brick Day. The event encourages schools, workplaces and organisations around New Zealand to hold a Casual Friday event on 31 July, with participants asked to dress in the Blair Vining Sports Foundation colours of red, white and black in exchange for a donation. Proceeds are then to be collected by each organisation, which is then asked to purchase a supporter’s brick.

To register and find out more, visit the Southland Charity Hospital Facebook page here.

We can’t tell you how humbling it is to receive donations from members of our community – your generosity blows us away. One of the latest community groups to get behind our cause was the Balfour Lions Club – together they raised $3000, which they have kindly donated to the Southland Charity Hospital. We had a chat to president Olivia Ross.

How did you raise this money, and who was involved in this fundraising effort?

The Balfour Lions Club and its members held a 4WD trip traversing the Dunrobin Valley in early March. We had a great turnout of those keen to not only see the view of the Dunrobin Valley, but also support this incredible initiative started by Blair Vining and carried on by members of the community in his honour.

Why did your organisation want to donate to the Southland Charity Hospital?

We wanted to support a not-for-profit that will benefit both our community and those who attend our annual projects. Blair’s story was heartfelt throughout our community and by many in the district, who have suffered from losing loved ones to cancer over time. A lot of them would have benefited had this been around in their time of need. To support this into the future was a no-brainer, especially when it’s going to be on our back doorstep.

What do you hope your donation assists the Southland Charity Hospital with?

As well as general expenses, the Balfour Lions hopes its donation will be able to help southerners in need, by enabling testing and treatment to happen far faster than it does now.

On the morning of 7 July, Southland Charity Hospital board member – and widow of Blair Vining, whose epic fight for an end to the “postcode lottery” was a key driver the formation of our hospital – spoke to the Southern District Health Board at its meeting in Dunedin. The transcript of her speech has since gone viral, with more than 70,000 views on the Southland Charity Hospital Facebook page.

Keep reading, below.

My name is Melissa Vining. I stand here today on behalf of the many Southland and Otago people who have contacted me regarding their dissatisfaction with the performance of the Southern District Health Board, too sick to speak up, in too much pain to speak up or too tired to keep fighting the system when they are fighting an illness, suffering in pain or paralysed with fear from the unknown during a lengthy wait.

Access to quality, timely health care is a fundamental right for every human. The Southern District Health Board is not meeting this basic right across many of the service areas it works in: access to CT scans, MRI scans, First Specialist Appointments, Oncology services, elective surgeries, and important diagnostics services such as colonoscopy.

It pained me to read your many years of board papers, that clearly identify demand exceeding capacity, and your solution to this is to focus on ways to reduce the demand, systems that deny patients the care they need. Patients can not refer themselves, so at some point, a medical practitioner has requested the test, appointment, or scan – not to overload the system but because in their expert medical opinion the patient needs it. I am not denying that at times the referrals may be unnecessary and triaging is required but what you as a DHB is doing in my view is rationing health care services from the very people who pay your wages, the taxpayer.

Fundamentally the NZ health system is flawed. I understand that you have “one pot of money” and that there are many conflicting demands and challenges. However, instead of just looking at rationing, I encourage you to take a different view. Look at what the need is and request the money from the government accordingly. Take a stand: tell us the public what our healthcare costs need to be to provide the service we deserve and need, demonstrate leadership, and look at improving efficiency and patient experience with the dollars you do have.

Today I am here to address the underperformance of the endoscopic services and the failings of the SDHB management to rectify these issues in a timely manner.
3 reports in 3 years, and still patients are suffering.
I do not have a medical degree or background and yet the recommendations from those reports seem clear:

• namely dysfunction in the department, the reports indicate the dysfunction comes from Specialists feeling their patients were being harmed by their referrals being overridden and denied care. This issue has been left unresolved for many, many years, and shows a complete failure and lack of competence from Senior Management. I cannot understand how it is even medically ethical for one Doctor to override another doctor’s medical opinion without a clinical assessment.

• The inappropriate use of national referral guidelines to effectively ration access to colonoscopy. Clearly, this tool was developed for non-GI specialists, it should not have taken two external reports to clarify this. Again, in my view a failing of Management to identify and resolve, still no one has been held accountable for the incorrect implementation of this tool that has caused irreversible harm to patients, as recently as in the last two weeks. This was a clear recommendation over a year ago.

• The Endoscopy User Group was identified as dysfunctional and remains that way to this day, meetings have not occurred for the last two months, with the explanation provided to me it was because of COVID. A very weak excuse given the rest of the country managed to continue utilising technology to conduct meetings.

• Despicable, unacceptably long waits. Bowel cancer if caught early is curable, MOH guidance requires DHB’s to provide colonoscopies within the following timeframes:
– Within 2 weeks for urgent patients
– Within 6 weeks for non-urgent patients
– Within 4 months for surveillance

The people of Otago and Southland are experiencing waits of up to 11 months. It is despicable. We all accept that the MOH required services to be suspended during the lockdown but you all knew the service was going to be on hold and just like the rest of the country you knew when we were moving out of lockdown. During lockdown, you could have been like the many business owners that worked tirelessly planning for how to recover and being ready to go. The data suggests that post lockdown you provided colonoscopies to screening patients and sent out blanket 7 and 8-month wait letters to symptomatic patients like Jason Mitchell, medically and ethically symptomatic patients should have been seen first.
You report wait times of 7 and 8 months but this in some cases is 10-11 months, as your measure does not take effect until that letter is generated. In my view, the time should start from the date of referral.

Systems, tools, and poor management aside, the facts still remain that Southern Region; Otago Southland have one of the highest rates of colorectal cancer in the country, one of the highest rates of spread beyond the bowel at the time of treatment, one of the highest rates of emergency surgery for colorectal cancer and still one of the lowest colonoscopy rates, SDHB has been congratulated on its performance with the bowel screening programme. Bowel screening is something I would like to see available to all New Zealanders 50 and over however not at the expense of symptomatic patients.
Chris, you have always been communicative with regards to my concerns and I appreciate that.

You have assured the public that it was your job to deliver colonoscopies in a timely manner and there was no need for a charity hospital, but here we are nearly a year on and we are no further ahead. The people of Southland and Otago deserve better.
The community should not have to build their own hospital, a 40-year-old widow should not have to continually point out this hospital’s failings and advocate for the people. I ask you and the government to provide the health care services we deserve.

You as a board have a simple responsibility to the people of Otago and Southland to provide health services through improving, promoting, and protecting the health of our region. Under resourcing and rationing adversely affects the medical professionals as well as the patients they serve, these long waits and delays are not only cruel, and inhumane but they kill people.

I thought what happened to Blair was a one-off, that he fell through the cracks, increasingly it appears to me that what happened to him was a policy decision.

As a board I am pleading with you to dig deep, show leadership, monitor hard, provide resources and deliver what the people of Otago and Southland deserve – access to quality health in a timely manner.

When Lyn Brown’s daughter Jess sent her a link to say she’d purchased a supporter’s brick for the Southland Charity Hospital, it reminded the owner of the Waikaia Store, Brown Owl Café and Post Office to jump online and purchase her own.

Little did she know, she would be the person who would help the #buyabrick campaign reach its first milestone: with her donation helping the Southland Charity Hospital’s newly-announced fundraising campaign reach $100,000.

“We wanted to buy one, mainly because it’s a great idea but also because we’ve both lost family members to cancer, so it’s pretty close to the heart,” she says.

“We just thought, if there was anything we could do to support the cause, then we would.”

Lyn was surprised to receive a phone call from Melissa Vining herself – member of the Southland Charity Hospital board and wife to Blair Vining, whose epic fight for better healthcare access for the south was a driving force in the creation of the charity hospital. It was Melissa who told Lyn her donation – in exchange for a supporter’s brick, which will be engraved with both her and husband Lindsay’s names – had helped the Southland Charity Hospital’s Buy a Brick campaign reach $100,000.

Blair was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer in 2018 and, after discovering the inequities within New Zealand’s healthcare system because of the ‘postcode lottery’, decided to do something about it. One of the greatest legacies Blair has left behind, following his death in October 2019, is the formation of the Southland Charity Hospital Trust.

Founded by the community, for the community, the Southland Charity Hospital will provide healthcare for those living in the Southern DHB Zone who would otherwise be unable to access treatment through the private or public systems.

“What do I hope for the Southland Charity Hospital? I guess it’s just giving people options in getting treatment and diagnosis earlier. The hospital is going to open so many doors for so many families, and hopefully will take away the stress and anxiety of waiting,” Lyn says.

Her father passed away from bowel cancer a few years ago, while her mother died of cancer 30 years ago. The Brown family has also lost loved ones to cancer recently.

“When Jess said she’d bought a brick, I thought ‘I must remember to do that’,” Lyn says.

“When Melissa rang, I just laughed… I was proud, I was really proud. It’s wonderful that the people behind the Southland Charity Hospital have got this far and they’re actually doing it. I admire Melissa and the Vining family so much. They’re incredible people. It’s so selfless, doing this for the betterment of everybody in Southland. It’s not just for them, it’s about the future. It’s just amazing.”

The Southland Charity Hospital needs to raise an additional $500,000 minimum in donations before it can proceed with refurbishing its building in Invercargill. The building was donated by ILT.

The Buy a Brick campaign will culminate in the first-ever Buy a Brick Day, to be held on 31 July. The hospital hopes to encourage Kiwi businesses, schools and organisations to hold a Casual Friday and use proceeds from their fundraising efforts to purchase engraved supporter’s bricks, which will form the path from the carpark to the hospital, or commemorative plaques, which will be situated in Blair’s Garden on-site.

To purchase a supporter’s brick or commemorative plaque, visit www.buyabrick.co.nz

Blair Vining reckoned if everybody in the south bought a brick, together we could build a hospital.

So, we’re going to do just that.

Buy a Brick Day

On Friday 31 July, 2020, the Southland Charity Hospital want to see schools and businesses across New Zealand hold a Casual Friday in support of his legacy, on the first-ever Buy a Brick Day. The public is encouraged to don red, white and black (the colours of the Blair Vining Sports Foundation) to raise funds at their school or workplace, which can then be used to purchase supporter’s bricks as a method of donating much-needed funds to the Southland Charity Hospital.

The hospital will provide access to healthcare to those living in Southland and Otago, who would otherwise be unable to access treatment through the private or public systems.

Blair’s wife, and Southland Charity Hospital board member, Melissa Vining says the campaign is crucial in obtaining the funding required to get the Southland Charity Hospital operational as soon as possible.

“Up and down New Zealand, people have supported Blair and his fight for equitable healthcare since day one. I can’t put into words how much that support has meant to our family. Because of the countless Kiwis who have backed Blair’s calls for an end to the postcode lottery, his dream of creating the Southland Charity Hospital is becoming a reality,” she says.

“The generosity of New Zealanders keen to back this cause has blown us away. We already have $500,000 sitting in the bank in donations – and, if we raise another $500,000, we could start working on the hospital build as soon as 1 August. The sooner we start working on the building, the sooner we can start admitting patients who desperately need our help.”

“Every little bit helps, and we’re calling on Kiwis – whether they live here in the deep south or not – to please reach into their pockets, dig out a little bit of loose change, and help us make Blair’s vision a reality,” Vining says.

What are supporter’s bricks?

Supporter’s bricks will be available to purchase online at www.buyabrick.co.nz

For a donation of $100, each brick can be engraved with up to two lines of 16 characters each.

This is your way to support the Southland Charity Hospital, and our way to forever recognise the generosity of the people who have backed us.

(Cost to purchase a brick inclusive of engraving. Wording of your choice.)

Get involved in Buy a Brick 2020

Organise a Casual Friday (with everybody instructed to wear red, white and black, the colours of the Blair Vining Sports Foundation) at your school or workplace on July 31, 2020
Rattle the tin: ask that everybody who takes part in your Casual Friday to chip in so that together you can purchase a supporter’s brick (or three!)
Share on social media: we’re on Facebook and Instagram – and we’d love to see what you get up to. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #buyabrick
Tell your mates. The Southland Charity Hospital will be accessible to everybody in Southland and Otago, but we’re hoping our friends and family further north get behind our cause too

Buy a Brick: other ways you can contribute

As well as its supporter’s bricks, the Southland Charity Hospital will also offer the public the opportunity to purchase a commemorative plaque in exchange for a donation.

For a donation of $500, these commemorative plaques will serve as a lasting tribute to supporters of the Southland Charity Hospital. The commemorative plaques will be situated in Blair’s Garden, to be created on-site at the Southland Charity Hospital premises. Plaques, like supporter’s bricks, will also be available to purchase online.

Visit www.buyabrick.co.nz for more.