Dr Alex Hedley - Labour Candidate for Napier

This is very concerning. And simply not good enough. It will be the 10th closure so far this year, that’s over 20% of 2026!!

I signed up to volunteer on the campaign trail for Napiers Labour candidate. Not done that before.
He is @alexfornapier.bsky.social

Be like me in ‘23! Volunteer for you local Labour Party campaign in 2026 … especially if you live in Napier 😉.

Follow the like below ⬇️
www.labour.org.nz/volunteer2026

Napier needs an MP who has the clinical experience to navigate the health system; someone who will fight to finally address those broken promises from nearly thirty years ago.

As a doctor who has worked in our local health services, I’ve heard the concerns of many Napier residents. For much of our community health services are a top priority - not a talking point.

Napier’s health system vulnerability was exposed in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle when our access to Hastings Hospital was cut off. Put simply, Napier deserves better on Health.

When Napier Hospital was closed by the National Government in the late 1990s, Napier was promised a community health service including 24/7 doctor services - something we are still waiting to be delivered.

We’ve been seeing this message more and more recently (note this is from earlier this week). Napier Health is suffering a death by a thousand cuts. 🧵

Chart showing unemployment between HYEFU and PREFU

#nzpol HYEFU data today showed that unemployment is forecast to stay much higher than forecast by Treasury at the last election. There will be 76,000 more people on jobseekers by 2027. Wages going up by less every year than forecast at the last election.

From today, vape products must not be visible from the outside of any store.
If you see a violation, it’s easy to report it online:

Public health doctors say Simeon Brown is meddling in the submissions they can make and it's having a "chilling effect".

Doctors and health experts should be free to do their job without being micro-managed by Simeon Brown.

Napier healthcare services in the spotlight at public meeting

📢 An opposition MP and city leaders are expected at Thursday night's meeting.

Christopher Luxon says we need to say “yes” more and “no” less, yet his government said NO to new interisland ferries, NO to new state houses, NO to Dunedin hospital, NO to affordable water reform, NO to school upgrades, and NO to higher wages.

Watch live: Greyhound racing to be banned in New Zealand, Winston Peters announces "While fewer dogs are dying, injury rates, while down slightly, have plateaued and remain unacceptably high," Winston Peters has announced.

I’m so happy to see the end of Greyhound racing. Now on to the job of safely rehoming these beautiful dogs. If you’re considering it, I highly recommend adopting one.

My dissertation support dog. Beau deserves a degree too.

#BHN Chris Hipkins this morning on Breakfast

"You don't throw a hand grenade into the crowd and then complain that people are screaming"

In response the the government complaining about the hikoi and other Māori protests #nzpol

Beyond shifting health resources, we could also improve overall population health by better regulating the availability, affordability, and advertising of low-nutrition foods and harmful products to promote healthier lives. 🔚

Investment in effective preventative and primary care can play a significant role in addressing health funding challenges by reducing the flow of patients requiring expensive hospital care.

These numbers reinforce the idea that increasing barriers to accessing preventative and primary care are contributing to the growing demands on hospital services. At a population level, people are sicker at the first diagnosis of illness and require more intensive treatment.

🦷 64.8% of children and 66.4% of adults brush their teeth with standard fluoride toothpaste at least twice each day. Nearly half of adults (44.9%) reported unmet need for dental care due to cost.

🏥 One in five (21.3%) children visited an ED in 2023/24, up from 15.1% in 2018/19. Visits to ED also increased for adults over the last five years. 17.8% of adults visited ED at least once in the previous 12 months in 2023/24, compared to 15.0% in 2018/19.

💨 About 480,000 adults (11.1%) were daily vapers in 2023/24, up from 3.3% in 2018/19. The highest daily vaping rates were in Māori (28.8%), Pacific peoples (21.5%), and young people aged 18–24 years (26.5%).

🥗 One in three adults (33.8%), nearly 1.5 million were classified as obese in 2023/24, up from 1.25 million (31.3%) in 2018/19. Nearly half of adults living in the most deprived neighbourhoods were classified as obese, compared to a quarter of adults living in the least deprived neighbourhoods.

💊 An estimated 191,000 adults (4.4%) had an unfilled prescription due to cost. Māori adults were 1.9 times more likely than non-Māori, and Pacific adults 2.2 times more likely than non-Pacific adults, to forgo collecting a prescription for the same reason.

🩺 One in four adults (25.7%) and one in five children (18.5%) reported that ‘time to get an appointment was too long’. One in six adults (15.5%) didn’t visit a GP due to cost in the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey, with cost being a bigger barrier for women (19.0%) than men (11.9%).

🍻 Hazardous drinking is most common among those aged 18-24 years (22.6%). However the same age group has seen the largest decline in hazardous drinking of any age group in the last five years (from 35.9% to 22.6%).

🚭 About 300,000 adults (6.9%) were daily smokers, which is a similar rate to the previous year (6.8%) but a decrease from 12.9% in 2018/19. This has been the first time an increase in smoking rates has been recorded since the survey began 12 years ago.

This week, the New Zealand Health Survey 2023/24 data was released. Here’s a glimpse of what it reveals. 🧵

#hīkoi arrives in Heretaunga. #toitūtetiriti

KOTAHITANGA MŌ TE TIRITI! See you tomorrow Heretaunga.