UCAN Health Charter
Sue Kedgley: CCDHB Candidate
UCAN has been working on a short film series to highlight the views and perspectives of some of the current CCDHB candidates. Here you will hear Sue Kedgley sharing her views, and ongoing endorsement of the UCAN Charter for Health, as she campaigns for a position on the Capital and Coast DHB Governance Board.
We will post more videos as we complete them.
Please share widely
Eileen Brown: CCDHB Candidate
UCAN has been working on a short film series to highlight the views and perspectives of some of the current CCDHB candidates. Here you will hear Eileen Brown sharing her views, and ongoing endorsement of the UCAN Charter for Health, as she runs for a second term the DHB Governance Board.
We will post more videos as we complete them.
Please share widely
Political parties endorsing the Health Charter
Over the last month UCAN chair person Debbie Leyland has asked each political party if they would consider endorsing the UCAN Health Charter.
UCAN members look forward to meeting with these parties after the election to make the UCAN Health Charter a cornerstone in a health system we can all be proud of.
UCAN also would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the public endorsements of the NZNO – New Zealands Nurses Organization, The Equality Network, Porirua Union and Community Health Service, Hutt Union Health Service, Newtown Union Health Service, Department of Public Health at the School of Otago in Wellington, the Wellington branch of the Public Health Association and the College of Nurses Aotearoa NZ.
UCAN is affiliated to no political party.
“Health is so much more than health”: UCAN delivers Health Charter and Election Statement to MP’S.
On Tuesday 15 August, members of UCAN and supporters met on Parliament steps to hand over the Ucan Health Charter and Election statement UCAN Health Charter 2016 to Members of Parliament.
We were joined by supporters and by the fabulous, The Brass Razoo Band.
We began with Lisa with baby Zac. Lisa represented Tick for Kids. Tick for Kids and Child Poverty Action Group
Muriel Tunoho spoke on behalf of living Wage Network Living Wage and Health Care Aotearoa HCA Healthcare: Home and Paul Barber then spoke from The Equality Network The Equality Network and The New Zealand Council of Catholic Social Service .
From left to right. Debbie UCAN, Lisa and baby Zac, Tick for kids,CPAG, Muriel, living wage, HCA, Paul Equality Network, NCCSS.
Grant Robertson, Finance Minister from the Labour Party,
Jan Logie, Spokesperson for Social Development from The Green Party both gave their commitment to support the UCAN Health Charter and make it a reality as did
Ria Bond, Health Spokesperson, NZ First
This is a positive result as we have 3 political parties that have committed to our Charter.
For more information Please visit our website at ucannz.org.nz
Denbie Leyland
Health charter to be delivered to parliament.
United Community Action Network (UCAN) press release
For immediate release
Monday 14 August at 7am
Health charter to be delivered to parliament
The United Community Action Network (UCAN) will deliver it’s health charter to parliament tomorrow, Tuesday 14 August at 1230pm on parliament grounds.
The College of Nurses, low-cost health providers, The Equality and Living Wage Networks and the Public Health Association Wellington branch are some of the groups who have signed the charter.
The charter calls for the right to: health care, a living income, a safe and healthy home, the ability to take party in society, a safe environment and an education.
UCAN is a national grassroots health rights organisation based in Wellington.
The group’s spokesperson, Debbie Leyland, says the growing gap between rich and poor sits next to health under funding as the country’s biggest health concerns.
“More and more people are being denied health care because they can’t afford it,” she says. “Poor housing, homelessness and low wages and benefits are as big a health problem as our growing waiting lists and number of people who need surgery but can’t get on a list.”
New Zealand has enough wealth to provide for all citizens but wealth is “poorly distributed”, she says.
“The provision of basic rights for all citizens just isn’t a priority.”
Leyland is calling on all political parties to support the charter.
Labour party finance spokesperson, Grant Robertson, Green Party social development spokesperson Jan Logie will speak at the presentation alongside representatives from Child Poverty Action Group, The Equality Network and The Living Wage Network.
ENDS
Presenting the Health Charter to Parliament
UCAN has organized a gathering at Parliament steps on Tuesday 15 August, at 12.30, to present the aspirational Health Charter to elected MPs.
Members of UCAN will be presenting the UCAN Health Charter and the UCAN Election statement to members of parliament on the steps of the beehive to Labour MP Grant Robertson and Green MP Jan Logie.
We will then hear from Jan Logie and Grant Robertson on their acceptance of the UCAN Health Charter and statement.
There will also be comment from The Equality Network and The Living Wage movement.
Please come and join us for this event
Action Groups work jointly on Child Poverty
PRESS RELEASE 21-4-17
UCAN, United Community Action Network’s Health Charter has received endorsement from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).
CPAG, an independent charity established in 1994, has maintained a robust focus on the elimination of poverty for the children of Aotearoa. Doctors, teachers, academics, healthcare workers and many other committed people contribute to the body of research and reportage that CPAG produces.
Approximately three hundred thousand children live in poverty in Aotearoa. If you add to this the older siblings, parents, extended family and whanau, the burden of poverty escalates. The long term impacts of poverty are widely documented: the tragic loss of potential of the children; increased difficulty in accessing affordable physical and mental healthcare; the increase in incidence of domestic violence; poorer educational outcomes; limited access to decent accommodation; and the tailspin of homelessness. This is an avoidable situation. There needs to be a willingness to engage, innovate, and reduce the impacts of these situations for the benefit of all.
CPAG states “child poverty could be eliminated completely. It’s all about Choice.” UCAN agrees, and this unfolding disaster is a failure of political policy and loss of values based politics.
UCAN spokesperson, Debbie Leyland, says, “These conditions need to be considered as the escalating crisis that it is. It’s brilliant, but also a tragedy, that organisations like CPAG are active and necessary. They are essential in these times to document and report the struggles of the most vulnerable among us. There is something seriously broken in New Zealand.”
ENDS
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) Press Release.
Please see the press release from Child Poverty Action Group(CPAG) who have published this endorsement of the UCAN Health Charter. We thank CPAG for their ongoing commitment and advocacy to improving the health and wellbeing of children, and the families they live within, in Aotearoa.
Support for UCAN NZ Health Charter
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) supports and endorses the Health Charter by the United Communities Action Network New Zealand (UCAN) that says “everyone deserves the right to health”.
UCAN, an organisation formed four years ago, believes that the right to health is, “being denied to many in Aotearoa-New Zealand, through poor access to health services, an unfair economic and education system that strongly favours the wealthy over the poor.”
CPAG agrees that much of the poor health among children in New Zealand is attributable to “inadequate and unhealthy housing, poor living environments that alienate vulnerable sections of the community.”
The link between poverty and poor mental and physical health among children, whose opportunities to thrive are compromised, is very real. Professor Innes Asher, Health Spokesperson for CPAG says that “poverty and unhealthy housing and inadequate basic health care are the drivers behind many of the thousands of children admitted to hospital each year with preventable diseases.
“Comprehensive effective policies are needed to change this grim situation which results in large numbers of children, many of whom are babies, becoming very sick and who often suffer lifelong damage.”
CPAG says that UCAN promoting the right to healthcare that is not met with a cost barrier is a commendable effort, and aligns with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which New Zealand ratified 24 years ago.
CPAG notes with great concern that over half a million New Zealanders cannot afford to see their GPs. We are asking that the Government extends the zero fees scheme for free access to General Practice to include all children up to their 18th birthdays.
This would be one of the measures needed toward a goal of halving the number of hospital admissions for preventable illness among children – which is currently around 40,000 annually.
The UCAN Health Charter (2016) also supports everyone having the right to affordable, safe and healthy housing.
CPAG hopes that there will be a greater commitment by the New Zealand Government to ensuring that every family has access to an affordable, healthy home. Instituting a rental Warrant of Fitness to ensure that a minimum standard is met and that homes are made to be safe, dry, and insulated would be a step toward ensuring better health for all children of low-income families.
Follow this link to download a pdf version of the UCAN Health Charter. Ends
UCAN - United Community Action Network Aotearoa NZ 