Kāpiti Coast Health

What’s your vision for health and wellbeing on the Kāpiti Coast?

Council has heard our community’s concerns about local access to health services: Kapiti does not have local 24/7 urgent health care, there is no public hospital in our district, and there is a shortfall of primary care doctors. While there are hospitals to the north and south within an hour’s drive, limited transport options and capacity is an ongoing challenge for many vulnerable people. With our forecast growth and aging population, this situation is expected to worsen. Simply put, Kāpiti Coast’s access to public health care needs to change.

While we do not provide health services, the Council firmly believes it can be a force to improve access to health services by:

• delivering on our legislative responsibilities under the Public Health Act
• understanding our community’s needs, and being an active advocate for better primary, urgent and hospital services for our people
• facilitating connections between, and partnering with, those that have the responsibilities and tools to deliver the right services to meet our needs.

Our Health Strategy Direction of Travel document explains how we intend to lift and refocus our efforts with this in mind.

Through our consultations with key stakeholders, as well as the conversations we’ve had with our community, we have identified five focus areas to help improve public health and wellbeing in our district.