Newsletter – September 2021

Read about some of the wonderful ways our supporters have helped to improve people’s health and happiness in recent months.

Never before have our hospitals been more important in our communities. Never before have our healthcare workers been more essential to the safety of our families. I’d like to personally thank you for supporting the people in our hospitals who care for us all. They are part of a big, connected, caring family that is coming together now more than ever to care for every family, including yours.

As we hopefully move towards more normality following this latest lockdown, I hope you and your whānau are feeling positive about the progress we’ve all made together, thanks to everyone’s efforts to keep our country safe from this ongoing pandemic.

Life in our hospitals never stops. Alongside the threat of COVID-19, our patients throughout every ward and department continue to rely on our hospital services, in some case to save their lives. I thank you for thinking of those people who are still undergoing treatment for cancer, stroke, mental health issues; and those using our country’s largest maternity service, emergency department and every ward in between.

In this newsletter, you’ll read about the positive difference supporters like you are making for our stroke patients in the hospital’s new Stroke Centre, which is the first of its kind in New Zealand. Our goal is to improve the hospital experience for our patients and their whānau, whether by providing better environments to help patients heal, or beautiful rooms to give whānau somewhere comfortable and calming to relax when supporting loved ones in hospital.

Our cover story features Theresa Gattung, one of New Zealand’s most prominent businesswomen and philanthropists, who funded the Women’s Health whānau room at Auckland City Hospital. The nurses and midwives have shared how the new space “allows for whānau to come together and celebrate their new pēpi, and gives new and expecting parents a space to socialise.”

Without our nurses and midwives, our hospitals wouldn’t be able to care for our families, and that’s why we have developed our Rise scholarship programme to support those aspiring to be nurses and midwives. You can read about the difference our Rise programme is making in this newsletter and further information is here on our website.

With my sincere thanks and best wishes for a safe and happy spring,

Candy Schroder
Director, Auckland Hospital Foundation

Click here to read the newsletter.