Braemar Charitable Trust has had boots on the ground again recently for two important hauora days in the region.
GPs and specialists came out to help at the South Waikato Community Hauora Day in Tokoroa in March, and then again at another hauora day in Taumarunui in April.
The Trust is the owner of Braemar Hospital, one of the largest private hospitals in New Zealand, and delivers a range of charitable activities, including community surgeries, to help improve health in the Waikato region. In the most recent financial year, it has enabled nearly 160 free surgeries for those who had been declined or faced very long wait-times in the public system.
Many surgeons and anaesthetists who are credentialed to work at Braemar Hospital donate their time, free; Braemar Hospital provides consumable items at cost, and the Trust funds surgical items, consumables, drugs and nursing care. Often specialists will help the Trust deliver procedures in the community such as at hauora days.
Trust Manager Paula Baker says Braemar has strong partnerships around the region. “We are very grateful to those groups working alongside us. We know how hard they are working to ensure our communities get the healthcare they need.”
At South Waikato Hauora Day in Tokoroa, the Trust collaborated with the National Hauora Coalition to provide a drop-in free skin-checking clinic where people could get skin lesions of concern looked at by a GP. Ms Baker says some of the patients weren’t enrolled with a GP, so this enabled them to become enrolled. Others might have been enrolled, but haven’t been able to make a timely appointment with GP.
On the day, 28 skin checks were provided and three skin lesions were removed. “Our mahi at the Trust is all about enhancing equity and access to healthcare for our communities. For us that means being really pragmatic and enabling people to access specialist care or procedures they have been waiting for in community based settings, but we couldn’t do it without the support of our volunteers and partners.”
At April’s Taumarunui Hapori Hauora Day, the Trust collaborated with the Taumarunui Health Hub to provide a free drop-in skin lesion-checking clinic, with 12 people accessing this service. Meanwhile, surgeon and trust board member Jasen Ly, who also volunteered his time at last year’s hauora day in Tokoroa, ran a clinic and saw 15 patients on the day, including eight for hernias, two with skin lesions and five people for rectal bleeding.
Several of these people required surgery and will be referred to the Braemar Community Surgery Programme. Some of the patients were “walk-in” patients not originally booked in to see Mr Ly. Says Ms Baker, “Across the wide variety of health services offered on the day, many of the people seen were deemed at-risk, so will have been very grateful to start down a pathway of care.”
Braemar Charitable Trust provides a wide range of charitable activities, all with the ultimate aim of improving health outcomes in our community. The Trust provides free surgeries, scholarships, health training and pays for medical research, among other things.
“Braemar Hospital uses the private hospital fees it receives to reinvest in the hospital and to pay us an annual dividend. That dividend helps support the pro-bono work from our surgeons and anaesthetists who are credentialed to work at Braemar and who help us undertake charitable work.”
Braemar Charitable Trust has also made it simple for anyone to donate to its work via a new online donations portal where donors can choose to fund a specific procedure (including minor plastics surgeries for skin lesions) or make donations towards a general fund, scholarship or research. To find out more, visit braemartrust.co.nz and sign up here for news and updates
