The Caring Collective

J O   B R A N S G R O V E - C H A I R ,  P I H A N G A   H E A L T H

When I tell people that Pihanga Health is a charity, it often surprises them. Yes, they know us as a medical centre - the only one for miles around - but they don’t always know that we are a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on providing health services tailored to what our community needs.

Established in 2007 through the amalgamation of two different health centres, Pihanga Health strives to find ways in which it can provide high quality health care locally that everyone can access. This means being innovative but also keeping costs for patients as low as possible.

As we all know, health is under enormous pressure at the moment - government funding nowhere near reflects the true cost of delivering services, staff are hard to find, get and keep (particularly in rural areas) and the cost of living crisis means that many of those who need health care the most struggle to afford it, (however low we keep our costs) amongst the other demands on their money. Historically we have used any profits we may have made to provide more services free of charge than what the government pays for.

This is becoming harder and harder for us to do.

We know that we live and work in an amazing community and that the community looks out for others who are having a hard time. I’ve been asked many times how someone can help us to keep doing what we’re doing. So we decided to launch ‘The Caring Collective’. It’s a way in which anyone can support the work we do.