<![CDATA[Mairangi Medical Centre

Many of you will be aware that Mairangi Medical Centre has had a challenging month.

As part of the plan to update our building the outer tin roof was due for a change. Unfortunately during this process the inner ceiling was disturbed, and due to the age of the building it was likely this material contained asbestos. For the safety of staff and patients we had to evacuate and close the building. The presence of asbestos was confirmed (though in levels that over such a short period are of no risk to anyone’s health) and therefore the building and its contents need to be cleaned and a new ceiling installed.

The task of closing a medical practice and setting up operations elsewhere is enormous. We are extremely grateful to our neighbouring practices who came to our rescue. Miraculously within 48hs we were able to resume business, and although this was a bare bones service for the first few days, within about a week we were able to offer almost our usual number of appointments and most of our services.

Mairangi Medical Centre has been operating in Mairangi Bay for about 50 years. We love being part of the community, serving families over generations, watching children grow up and adults grow older with us! The staff at the practice are also like a family. We enjoy working together and most of the time are like a well-oiled machine. Being ‘homeless’ and scattered around, removed from our environment and community and lacking in the ‘home comforts’ that help that machine to run smoothly has been immensely challenging. As you can imagine to achieve the goal of doctors and nurses seeing patients a whole lot of other stuff has to happen as well. Every staff member at Mairangi Medical Centre has been working extremely hard to ensure our patient safety as a priority, and with an as needed dose of patience and understanding also aiming to keep everyone happy and satisfied.

We look forward to welcoming you back to see us as we resume normal services and continue to serve our community, in early April 2019. In the meantime a big thank you goes to the staff at Browns Bay Medical Centre and Northcare who have welcomed and accommodated us, thank you to our patients for your understanding and patience, and thank you to all the amazing team at MMC who have been working so hard in very challenging circumstances.

And let’s not forget to count our blessings. To be grateful for and appreciate our jobs, families, and health. They may not always run smoothly or be perfect but we can always find something to be grateful for, we can learn to accept and manage what we can’t change, and be positive and work hard to change those things we can.