It is 3am and Joe* from the local community patrol unit has just been called out to Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital carpark by hospital security. Another suicide attempt has just been turned away from the hospital and is waiting in the carpark for basic first aid. Why? Because that person is unvaccinated.
Auckland has now been locked down under Level 4 or Level 3 for a record 98 days (to 24th November) and will have been locked down for 106 days by the time the region enters the “traffic light system” under the Red classification.
According to Joe’s community patrol unit, from the start of July to 19th November this year, there were 282 suicides in South Auckland suburbs alone. Note that this is from only one of the community patrol units, there are several. For comparison, the NZ Office of the Chief Coroner confirmed 607 suicides for the year to 30 June 2021, for all of New Zealand. The Counties Manukau DHB, in which Middlemore Hospital is based, covers a population of 578,650 according to the Ministry of Health. Assuming there are no more suicides this month, which is highly unlikely, the figure from Joe’s unit alone implies a suicide rate ~10 times that for the entire country in South Auckland alone, for the period from July to November.
This will not be confirmed until the official statistics are released by the Chief Coroner in the 3rd quarter of next year.
The local community patrol unit also recorded 461 suicide attempts in the same period. As The Daily Examiner reported earlier this month, Stats NZ’s “Serious Injury Outcome Indicators” to the end of 2020 registered 320 “serious non-fatal intentional self-harm” injuries for all of NZ. This works out to a rate of 6.43 per 100,000 people nationally. Once again assuming there are no further suicide attempts this month in South Auckland, again highly unlikely, the figure from the local community patrol unit implies an attempt rate of 191.2 per 100,000, or around 30 times that for the country.
Elliot Ikilei, a former youth worker based in South Auckland for many years, corroborates the sharp rise in parasuicide reports. While he has not been directly involved in youth work for some time, community groups he remains part of are notified of such incidents.
Elliot Ikilei with some of the youth he has worked with over the last two decades.
Just as concerning is the allegation of refusal of medical treatment for those who have not taken a COVID-19 injection. Joe claims that in addition to injuries being turned away at the door by Middlemore Emergency Department staff, primary care by public health nurses and mental health services provided by the Counties Manukau DHB are also being withdrawn from those who are unvaccinated.
Double amputees are being denied publicly funded medical padding and medical supplies, where those were previously fully funded, he states.
The Daily Examiner emailed the office of Arena Williams, the Labour MP for Manurewa, seeking a comment on the allegations regarding care for unvaccinated constituents. Her office replied that “Unvaccinated people are not being turned away from Middlemore Hospital or by public health nurses, and any concerns about the quality of care that unvaccinated people receive are best directed to Counties Manukau DHB.”
The Daily Examiner visited the Emergency Department of Middlemore Hospital and approached staff for comment on the allegations regarding care for unvaccinated people presenting at the department. Staff refused to either confirm or deny the allegations.
Emergency Department carpark at Middlemore hospital
If the publicly declared policy of healthcare being available to all, regardless of vaccination status, was being adhered to, we would have expected staff at the hospital to have at least confirmed that. They did not.
This period of lockdown for Auckland is far from over. The Red classification continues the severe restrictions on movement, activities and businesses within the region, and travel to any other part of NZ is being tightly controlled. This is clearly having a devastating impact on Aucklanders’ lives, with no end in sight.
*not his real name
