On the road to better health

Dubbed the tarāpunga – or red-billed gull – the clinic offers free ear, nose and throat (ENT) services to people in need. It’s modelled on an initiative by Sir Patrick Eisdell Moore, a medical officer with the 28th Māori Battalion, who after World War II converted his Land Rover into a makeshift clinic and travelled the East Cape assessing children’s ear health. 

Thanks to Richard, who generously funded the clinic in its entirety, the tarāpunga is now on a similar mission in Te Tai Tokerau. 

To bring the van to fruition, Richard worked with Dr David Waterhouse, a Whangārei ORL surgeon who is now responsible for running the clinic. 

“It definitely wouldn’t have happened without Richards massive donation and the dedication of people wanting to do good,” says David. 

Having grown up in rural Northland himself, David says there is a “massive” need for ENT care across the region. 

“There are big chunks of Northland with really poor access to care, mainly around the mid north and Dargaville. People have to travel a huge amount of time to get to Whangārei; it takes a day out of work and sometimes they have to bring all the kids down, and the fuel cost is huge. This has a major impact on families.”

The clinic launched in November 2024. Figures from its first five months show 306 patients were treated at 46 locations, with David estimating the total number of patients seen to now be around 600 to 700. 

The van is run by Health NZ staff and is set up to help everyone “from babies to people in their nineties”. 

“We’ve basically got everything in the van that we have in the hospital,” says David. 

Community reaction to the clinic has been “overwhelmingly positive”, with a notable flow-on effect for staff.

“This has been so good for morale. Staff feel like they’re really giving back to their community.”

In the long term, David hopes the van can act as a blueprint for similar initiatives elsewhere.

“In South Auckland, access to care is even worse than what we have up here in Northland so having something like this in an urban setting would be useful too.”

One University of Auckland–backed initiative focusing on South Auckland is Vision Bus Aotearoa. 

Launched in 2022, the bus aims to improve access to eye care in underserved communities. Travelling to schools, marae and refugee centres, the bus provides eye tests and treatments – including glasses – at no cost to patients. In 2025, it visited 19 schools, with 709 children referred for a comprehensive eye examination. Seven out of ten children seen on the bus need glasses for significant refractive error, while others have conditions such as amblyopia, ocular trauma, allergic eye disease and keratoconus. 

The initiative has been funded from the beginning by Peter and Rae Fehl, with additional philanthropic support coming from the Blake family, Essilor – a prescription lens provider – a and the Buchanan Charitable Foundation.

“There is no public funding for the majority of the population when it comes to primary, community-based eye care, so the need is immense,” says Dr Joanna Black, Deputy Head of the School of Optometry and Vision Science, who oversees the bus.

Even when people know they or their children need glasses, financial barriers often prevent them from seeking help, she says. 

“They’re reluctant to come forward and have their children tested when they know they won’t be able to afford what’s needed – and that’s really difficult.”

The bus also aims to raise awareness of eye health. While people know they need regular general health check-ups, Joanna says eye care is “more often seen as something that you only access when you have a problem – and that means many conditions go undetected for longer”. 

While the bus serves people of all ages, its primary focus is schoolchildren. 

“With children, we know that having clear vision is really important for early literacy and learning,” says Joanna. “If vision conditions aren’t detected in those first few years of school, children are much more likely to become disengaged from their education.” 

Dr Andrew Collins, Head of the School of Optometry and Vision Science, says the bus also plays an important role in training future optometrists. Bachelor of Optometry students are placed on the bus during their final year, allowing them to “work with a range of different communities, demographics and age groups”. 

The bus also supports research aimed at improving understanding of eye conditions in Aotearoa – work intended to inform long-term policy change that will hopefully one day lead to eye care being state-funded.

“The aim is to raise awareness and influence policy over time, to create a system where people – particularly children – can access eye health care in their own communities, much like they can access dental care,” Andrew says.