On the same day the Government vowed to abolish the countrys 20 health boards, Gina Woods won a five-month long battle with Canterburys health board to fund a major surgery.
The North Canterbury surveyor and single mum needs surgery to remove a tumour from her jaw, but the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) would not pay for a prosthetic facial reconstruction.
Without it, Woods faced a speech impairment and inability to work, a liquid diet and a lifelong disfigurement.
She was considering selling her house to pay for the $60,000 procedure privately.
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Instead, at the encouragement of her surgeon, she fought to get the public health care she believed New Zealand offered with the help of Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey.
On Wednesday, while Health Minister Andrew Little announced sweeping reforms to the health system, Woods learned the CDHB would fund her surgery as a one-off.
Dooceys Rangiora office staff called to tell her the good news.
Gina Woods, who was turned down for facial reconstruction after having a tumour removed from her jaw by Canterbury health board, has been told they will fund the procedure. She is thrilled with health reforms which will abolish health boards.
Id sort of lost hope that something would change, and I was going to be in the predicament of funding it myself because I didnt want to have to live my life in the way it would be left.
To hear that news this morning was just amazing.
Woods said she was extremely grateful to Doocey and his staff who had written to Little and met with CDHB staff on three occasions.
The CDHB chose not to fund the procedure in 2019, but other DHBs did fund it, which Woods believed was wrong.
To think Im stigmatised in terms of where I live, in terms of the patient care and facilities I receive compared to someone else, a post-code lottery, its unbelievable.
She said the reforms were phenomenal as they would remove the variability of health services between health board areas.
Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey and his Rangiora office went into bat for constituent Gina Woods over funding for reconstructive facial surgery.
What they are doing in terms of centralising just makes perfect sense to have that one controlling body to make the decisions.
She said health board decisions to block access for treatment had huge impacts on patients, and that being denied the life-changing surgery had shaken her trust in the health system.
Were supposed to have a world-class health system which is free and accessible for everybody.
Woods said she went public with her story to highlight the levels of disparity.
Im a very private person so to actually do that was quite hard, but the whole ethos around it was to point out that Im not the only one in this situation.
CDHB maxillofacial clinical director Jason Erasmus said earlier the department offered an extensive range of jaw reconstructive surgical procedures, but that some of what Woods required had not been available in Canterbury.
Implants in the hinge of the jaw were independently reviewed and discussed at length by a clinical group before a decision was made in January last year not to introduce that surgery.
Erasmus said the decision about the procedure would be reviewed again later this year.
Doocey said he was stoked the CDHB had made an exception for Woods.
To think someone like her was going to be left with a quite serious impact on her health with her surgery with a young kid, and would just be left to fend for herself was quite amazing really.
While he said Woods treatment demonstrated the problems with the current system, he did not support the Governments plan.
