Ruapehu District iwi and community leaders are welcoming the start of a $4.4 million redevelopment of Raetihi’s health centre after years of campaigning for the project.
The leaders say expanding and refurbishing the Waimarino Health Centre is an important step toward more integrated and accessible healthcare for the Waimarino community.
Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton said the start of construction was a significant milestone after years of local advocacy to secure funding and get the project moving.
“This is a fantastic outcome for the community and everyone who has worked so hard to make it happen,” Kirton said.
Kirton said the redevelopment would make it easier for patients to access services while allowing providers to work more closely together.
“Having a range of health and social services operating from one modern facility will make a real difference for local patients and whānau,” he said.
Kirton said Waimarino Development Group co-chairwoman Honey Winter joined him in publicly calling on Health New Zealand last year to prioritise the stalled project.
Health Minister Simeon Brown then asked Health New Zealand to accelerate the work and involve key stakeholders in securing an outcome for the community.
A sod-turning ceremony last week marked the start of work on the Seddon Street facility, which will more than double in size through a new 345-square-metre extension and refurbishment of the existing building.
Winter described the project as seven years in the making, saying the community and iwi had waited a long time for construction to begin.
The expanded centre is expected to bring public, primary and community health services together under one roof, with construction due to be completed in the second half of 2027.
The project has also been welcomed by Te Mātuku iwi-Māori partnership board, which says the development reflects years of community advocacy and consultation.
Te Mātuku chief executive Elijah Pue said whānau had been clear about their needs through two significant community consultation processes.
“They have continued to advocate for those needs to be recognised.”
Pue said rural communities experienced the health system differently and were often best placed to identify the barriers and gaps affecting their whānau.
“The challenge for the health system is not simply to ask communities what they need, but to ensure what they tell us genuinely influences the decisions and solutions that follow.”
Te Mātuku became directly involved in the redevelopment about 12 months ago through its partnership with Health New Zealand, with Pue serving as co-chair of the project’s governance group alongside Health New Zealand, Ruapehu Health Ltd, iwi and local providers.
The development was an example of how an iwi-Māori partnership board could work alongside the health system to bring local knowledge and experience into decisions affecting its communities, Pue said.
The redevelopment is being viewed as the next step toward the community’s longer-term vision for an integrated wellness centre in Raetihi.
The original “Manawanui, Manawaroa, Manawaora E” concept envisaged an integrated centre of wellness in Raetihi, focused not only on treatment but prevention and wider community wellbeing.
Pue said the full wellness centre vision was not being delivered as part of the current redevelopment, but remained an aspiration for the future.
“I look forward to celebrating a wellness centre one day operating in Raetihi,” he said.
Pue said Te Mātuku would continue working with Health New Zealand and local providers to keep patients and whānau at the centre of the next stage of the project.
Kirton said the investment had significance beyond the health sector, given the high levels of deprivation across Raetihi and the wider Waimarino area.
He said limited access to integrated health and social services contributed to wider challenges including unemployment, mental health distress and persistent health inequities.
“This investment is an important step towards building a stronger and more sustainable future for rural healthcare in our district,” Kirton said.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
