While two armed masked men held nearby pharmacy staff at gun point, Kaiti Medical Centre receptionist Bev Scott was thinking on her feet. 

She was one of three next-door KMC staff working that night and had been alerted to the armed hold up by an incoming patient.  She was alone in the reception area tidying books near the entrance when the distressed woman burst in yelling “Ring 111!”

As Bev reacted the woman screamed, “There is an armed robber!!!” Bev was cool under pressure. Concerned that any offender would now know that she might alert the police, she wanted to make the call out of sight. 

Running down to an end doctor’s room and closer to other staff she and the KMC GP on that night, made the crucial call.

“That was quite scary. It was at night. We stayed where we were,” remembers Bev, who has worked at KMC for a quarter of a century.

Despite a number of emergency patient situations and one birth at the Centre, the armed hold up around six years ago remains, her “scariest” memory.

“It was serious. They had the chemist and assistant on the floor. They got the money, the safe with the drugs, they had a car waiting for them.” 

Bev’s reaction to this stressful experience defines her style. As Kaiti Medical Centre GP Johan Peters’ puts it, she is all “coolness under pressure”. “She has a certain unflappability about her, yes, even in armed holdups!  Her loyalty to this organisation is also very apparent.”

Loyalty comes perhaps from longevity. When Bev first started in 1983 each GP had his or her own nurse, receptionist and counter. The vibe in the waiting room was very different to what it is today with receptionists knowing most patients by name and having more time to exchange pleasantries. 

“Conversations are different now,” says Bev. “GPs had quarter of an hour appointments and the patients that we knew who needed longer, we’d put an alert on their notes.” 

She says today’s ways are not as easy on either the patient or the GP.  “The whole world has sped up hasn’t it? It’s full on now. But despite this I feel KMC offers an excellent service.”

Not surprisingly, the arrival of the computer was a sizeable, and in hindsight, difficult change at KMC. One day Bev and fellow administration staff received three hours training on the newly landed beige super computers.“That was all we got. We walked out of the medical centre that night, came back the next morning and there were these ugly computers staring at us.”

In scenes that would lead to litigation today, patients leaned over the counter giving them hints on what button to push! One nurse walked out in frustration at the technology and never came back, remembers Bev. 

Bev, who is a mum to three, grandmother to nine, and wife of former Gisborne Deputy Mayor David Scott, says working for KMC has been extremely rewarding. KMC’s low staff turnover and the camaraderie and friendships shared make for a “pleasurable place to work.”

Never in his life did Hakopa ‘Jacob’ Kupenga think he would succumb to a cardiac event. And so when one January morning when he felt a “flutter” on his left side, he remained adamant it wasn’t serious. 

“I got a shock! I am a fit fella,” said the 57-year-old who is Ngati Porou, Aowera, Te Aitanga-a-Mate. “I thought it happened to people that were fat. Over weight. People who ate fatty foods. I got the shock of my life when I ended up in Gisborne Hospital.”
 
Jacob drove himself to Gisborne Hospital where he discovered to his surprise he was having an angina attack. Years of smoking and some hard living was taking its toll. Half an hour after presenting at hospital he found himself in ICU attached to monitors with concerned people in uniforms watching his every movement.
 
This dramatic event was to catapult Jacob into the first intake of Turanganui Primary Health Organisation’s Cardio and Pulmonary Rehabilitation programme, run in conjunction with Tairawhiti District Health, Turanga Health and Sport Gisborne.

Cardio and Pulmonary Rehabilitation is a free eight week community-based programme with education and activity sessions. Participants include people who have had an acute cardiac event such as a heart attack or other heart emergency. They are referred via the Tairawhiti District Health Cardiac Nurse Specialist Tracy Low. 

HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle Coordinator Shelley Mitchell said Jacob took part in the first programme run February and March 2009. Cardio and Pulmonary Rehab aims to help patients return to a full and active life, she said.

“Jacob and the others were given tips on healthy eating, smoking cessation, medication, and where appropriate introduced to other programmes such as HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle and Green Prescription.”

There is also an activity component to the programme, and this was the part Jacob responded to the most.  

“Oh I loved it. Walking. Interacting with the other people. Exercising on the bike, what’s that called? The exercycle!”

He says when he started the programme he was very “phlegmy” but that abated over the weeks and he found his breathing was easier and his fitness grew. Keeping up with his two-year-old mokopuna was now easy and he found his zest for life in the garden again.

“I really enjoyed those exercises and I am still doing some of them,” he said. 

During his time with the Turanganui programme Jacob had high blood pressure and high cholesterol due to not taking his medications. This was managed by Turanga Health nurse Sarah Timmins. He received medication education through the Disease State Management Service at Turanga Health and was referred to his GP.

Jacob also became part of the HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle programme. He accessed funding he was entitled to via HealthRight social worker Tina Holmes and was guided through the health system and motivated by Shelley Mitchell. 

Sport Gisborne’s Toni Hoskin taught him how to enjoy exercise and do it safely and signed him up on Green Prescription. Jacob was a model patient, says Shelley. 

“What happened to Jacob, the doors that opened, is a perfect example of the primary and secondary sectors working well.”

When Jacob started the programme he could walk only 472 metres in six minutes. By the time he had finished he could do nearly three-quarters of a kilometre. 

He maintains the programme changed his life. “Everyone was so warm, professional, kind and smiling. It’s the best programme ever. I can do the things I like doing and I feel alive.”