Perhaps it’s old hat now, considering it’s been more than 400 days since the Ministry of Health agreed to replace the ageing wheelchair stair-lift that was forcing Arthur and Barbara Broomes’ lives apart, but I’d like to join the growing public cry to hurry up and fix this ghastly situation!

For those of you who are unaware of the Broomes’ predicament, the South Auckland couple’s application to replace their 18-year-old lift was approved in November, 2006. Barbara had switched to a power chair as a result of her multiple sclerosis, and the stairlift could not carry the extra weight. The recycled one that the Ministry tried to replace it with was too small to fit her wheelchair in, and since then the Ministry has been “seeking proposals”, while Arthur and Barbara live on separate floors of their house, and communicate by phone, email, and shouting out the window. How appalling.

The kicker to all of this is that Mr Broome, 76, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2006, and returned home to live out his final days with his wife of 57 years. But thanks to the ineptitude of the Ministry of Health, he hasn’t been able to see her, let alone hug her, for over a year, despite living in the same house! I encourage you to support this couple’s struggle against a hapless ministry by emailing the Minister of Health David Cunliffe, at dcunliffe@ministers.govt.nz and letting him know this quite simply isn’t good enough.

You can read more about this story over here and here.