The success of a marae-based health clinic at Mangatoatoa Pā, just inside the King Country boundary near the banks of the Pūniu River, shows the power of collaboration.
Mangatoatoa Pā co-chairs Hone Hughes, left, and Derek Roberts – outside the old and new wharenui, not only share marae duties, such as mowing the lawn, but a vision for the health of the community.
And if you are looking for visual proof, the makeshift waiting room, outside the three consultation portacoms, with its ‘always on the boil’ water urn, outdoor heater, snacks and health professionals readily at hand, provides that.
Marae committee co-chair Derek Roberts describes the past two years setting up and then maintaining the clinic as hectic with support from Te Awamutu Medical Centre, Pinnacle Group and Tainui essential to its success.
“They’ve maintained the interest right from day one. By working in partnership, you can make that vision happen.
“Pinnacle have been the enablers. They’ve enabled us to do what we want to do for our whānau,” he says.
The Wednesday we visit both clinical care co-ordinators – Jenny Sutton from Mahoe Medical and Whitney Te Wano from Te Awamutu Medical – are on hand as is Mahoe GP Shivam Deo. When the clinic started in 2022 it was held fortnightly. Last year Mahoe came on board, and it became weekly.
The waiting room at Mangatoatoa Pā boasts a hot water urn, tea, coffee and snacks for visitors.
The marae is nine kilometres from Te Awamutu on Te Mawhai Road, off SH3. Its primary hapū are Parewaeono, Ngutu and Paretekawa of Ngāti Maniapoto. A portrait of Rewi Maniapoto – hangs in the wharenui Te Maru o Ihowa, built 10 years ago next to Te Aroha o Ihoa, the original 1908 wharenui.
Te Awamutu Medical Centre general manager Wayne Lim says providing free community health services for Māori away from the practice and in marae had always appealed to him as a model that would work.
Clinical care co-ordinators – Jenny Sutton, left, from Mahoe Medical and Whitney Te Wano, originally from Ōtorohanga, from Te Awamutu Medical.
The marae committee was keen and with assistance from Raukawa Charitable Trust, Te Awamutu Medical Centre funded a three-month trial that established the service at Mangatoatoa Pā. The initiative notched up a gear in October 2022 when Waikato-Tainui and Pinnacle saw how the Te Whare Tapa Whā centric model of care – that encompasses western and traditional Māori practices – was working.
Both committed funds to keep it going – Tainui money for the facilities and patient procedures, Pinnacle for the cost of clinical delivery.
Mahoe came on board in January and the clinic’s free services have been fully subscribed every week since providing GP, diabetes nurse and pharmacist consults, cervical screening and prescriptions.
Roberts hope they will soon be able to add immunisations for tamariki.
Lim says word is spreading across the affiliated network and as the clinic becomes more popular the nurses and GPs have been receiving an increasing number of drop-in patients as well as the patients who have made scheduled appointments.
Derek Roberts’ history of working in mental health gives him a unique take on what is needed at Mangatoatoa Pā.
Pūniu River Care – an iwi-connected environmental restoration organisation – has its nursery next door.
The nursery approached the marae several years ago wanting funds for their first irrigation and has since grown into what it is today, says Roberts.
Another funding boost from Tainui has resulted in wooden planters being installed to grow vegetables for visitors and patients.
Some whānau had stopped going to the GPs in Te Awamutu because they owed money. The funding helped pay off those debts so they could access specialist help and speed up clinical investigations.
“It fits in with Tainui’s health and wellbeing strategy,” says Roberts.
Te Wano is on a fixed term contract as part of Pinnacle’s Comprehensive and Community team and will be active at the clinic and around the region.
The team provides primary care with a focus on improving equity of access to care and health outcomes for Māori, Pacific people, disabled and people living in rural and highly deprived areas.
Te Wano was previously a public health nurse, and her mother Tania is charge nurse manager at Te Kūiti Hospital.
The community team has also backfilled a clinical pharmacist position allowing Rachel Bell to spend more time supporting the marae clinic.
Derek and Moe Roberts with the raised vegetable gardens created from timber gifted to the marae by Waikato Tainui.
Other partnerships include Rongoaa Tuku Iho Healing, Selina Paerata a health improvement practitioner from Kokiri Trust, Diana Johnson – clinical psychologist Te Amohia Health (Quit Smoking), Ko Wai Au (Rangatahi Service), Māori Women’s Welfare League and Kainga Aroha.
The initiative includes medical visits, bowel screening, mental health assistance, dance and movement sessions and health food preparation workshops to ensure whānau have a holistic hauora experience.
The clinic has attracted attention from researchers who have secured a grant from the Health Research Council to look at how the healthcare delivery has made a difference.
Another successful partnership is at the marae itself where Roberts, a pākehā, works closely with kaumatua and marae co-chair Hone Hughes. There is a family connection – Roberts’ wife Moe is Hughes’ cousin.
Roberts met his wife to be in 1972 after moving from Australia and trained as a psychiatric nurse at Tokanui Hospital. He worked for Hauora Waikato Kaupapa Māori Mental Health Service up until his retirement in 2018. Since then, he has devoted time at the marae.
“There’s been a lot of interest in this marae-based programme,” he says.
In the first three months of this year, the clinic saw 77 patients, 14 of them for the first time. In the next quarter the patient numbers topped 120.
Mangatoatoa Marae also hosts a monthly legal clinic in partnership with Community Law Waikato for employment issues, tenancy, judicial matters, power of attorney and wills.
Visiting Mangatoatoa Marae to see how Waikato/Bay of Plenty Cancer Society can help was Charlie Poihipi, right, Iwi Partnership manager and Supportive Care nurse Leoni Lawry, left, with marae co-chairs Derek Roberts and Hone Hughes.
