Gore Health Matters - July 2026 Newsletter
- Gore Health
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
28 July 2026
Kia ora koutou and welcome to the first edition of our refreshed Gore Health newsletter.
As winter settles in across Aotearoa, our teams continue to work hard to meet the growing needs of our communities. This season brings important updates across funding, workforce, service development, and national advocacy.
It’s always a demanding season, but it also showcases the resilience, innovation, and dedication of our teams. Thank you to everyone across our services for your continued commitment to delivering high quality care to our communities. Stay safe out there. Ngā mihi,
Karl Metzler CEO, Gore Health
We are awaiting confirmation of our annual funding update from Health New Zealand, including the outcome of our business case for additional weekend funding. These decisions are essential to supporting sustainable service delivery across our rural region.
In the meantime, we are pleased to share that we have received Winter Boost funding from Health NZ. This targeted support enables us to place a Triage Nurse in the ED every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday through to the end of September 2026, helping alleviate seasonal pressure and improve patient flow.
Alongside this, we are actively negotiating our annual Primary Care contracts and uplifts, in line with the national process underway for all primary care practices.
From one big T to another - Robinson family loving life in Gore
Believe it or not, but Gore’s famous Trout statue is somewhat responsible for one of Gore Health’s newest GPs.
Dr Brandon Robinson (pictured), his wife, and their three young boys moved to Gore from Austin, Texas in January and it may just have been a picture of Trevor the Trout that sealed the deal for the family. “Everywhere looked pretty cool. But I love to fish, so when I saw the fish statue, I thought this could be a place that I would like,” he says. And it is.
“My wife and I had always actually talked about coming to New Zealand one day to work.” Then, about a year ago, and after a hard day, Brandon
saw an email he normally scrolled past - one from a New Zealand recruitment agency.
“And I was like, you know what? I’m just gonna send them an email back and just, you know, what the heck, you know, see what it's about.”
Getting used to a different system of referrals and specialists has been a learning curve, but 95 percent of the work is the same, he says. And rural is rural wherever you go - “just different boots”.
The family have slotted in well, with the kids enjoying school - a positive change, he says - and the welcoming and supportive environment at Gore Health have made the transition that much easier. “It's a little bit different to a big city, it was rare that I'd run into my patients at the supermarket.
Here, I see my patients all the time. So I'm getting used to that, but I don't mind it. Yeah, I really don't mind it.”
Supporting Gore Health Today and for Tomorrow
As a community-owned and community-funded organisation, Gore Health Limited is incredibly grateful for the generosity of those who choose to support our work through donations and bequests. Every gift, no matter the size, helps us continue investing in the health facilities, equipment and services that benefit our community now and into the future.
To make it easier for anyone considering leaving a gift or making a donation, we've added a dedicated Donations and Bequests section to our website. It outlines the different ways you can support Gore Health and the lasting impact your generosity can have.
If you have ever thought about giving back to Gore Health, we encourage you to take a look. On behalf of our Board, staff and the wider community, thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years - your generosity truly makes a difference.
Workforce News Welcoming New Clinicians
We are delighted to welcome several new team members who will strengthen our services over the coming months:
• PA Sarah Hood, joining us from Alaska, will be providing ED cover from May through August.
• Dr Chris Canto, arriving from Maine, will join the ED team in mid September for a six month placement.
• Dr Daidre Azueta (pictured) and her whānau have arrived from Florida. Daidre will be based in GHC Primary Care, and we are thrilled to have them join our community. • We also warmly welcome our inaugural Allied Health Assistant, Koreena Hughes. Koreena’s role marks an exciting milestone, and we know she will make a meaningful difference to our busy Allied Health team.
Familiar Face Relishing New Role At Gore Hospital
Gore Hospital has welcomed a familiar face into a brand-new role. After spending nearly two decades behind the scenes as technician in the lab, Koreena Hughes is now on wards and out in the community as Healthcare Assistant for Allied Health.
Developed to bridge gaps across care environments, Koreena’s role provides support to physiotherapists, occupational therapists (OTs) and coordinators. After a month on the job, Koreena is loving the change of pace.
“I always thought if an opportunity came up to try something different here, that’s exactly what I want to do,” she says. “I liked the patients and being in the hospital, but I wanted to move on from the lab.”
Now her days involve anything from home visits alongside OTs to sorting out the equipment shed and, as her role progresses, she will help patients with their exercises on the ward, freeing up the physio team.
Her new role has not only made things easier for the teams she works with, but also her team at home. She and her husband run Gore’s Mr Green franchise and have two young boys, aged 5 and 9. Juggling work, home and a business had been tough.
“In the lab, if your kids are sick, it’s incredibly stressful. You can’t just leave urgent work or walk away from a waiting room full of patients,” she says. “But the hospital has a real family-centred outlook.”
“And I knew it was the right decision when I came home on the first day and the boys saw me home and they just ran up to me for big hugs and I thought, oh, this is really good.”
Service Innovation & National Partnerships
As MoleMap NZ’s largest licensee, we are thrilled to share a major development: after many years of discussion with Health NZ, MoleMap NZ will begin seeing patients from hospital waiting lists. This is an extraordinary opportunity that may pave the way for a national skin cancer screening programme. The initial trial will focus on our Wellington, Gisborne, and Whangarei clinics.
Advocacy & Rural Health Leadership
This winter, we had the privilege of presenting at the Beehive as part of the annual Rural Fest, hosted by Hauora Taiwhenua. With Health Minister Brown and several MPs in attendance, we highlighted the ongoing inequities between Trust/NGO owned rural hospitals and HNZ facilities. Ensuring fair and sustainable funding for rural communities remains a core priority, and we will continue to advocate strongly on behalf of our region.
