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Assisted dying will not be on offer to Gore Health patients.
The health centre’s chief executive officer Karl Metzler has announced it will not be carrying out any end of life procedures.
Metzler says Gore Health’s decision was made by its prescribing physicians. Not one of them support the bill.
“None of them got into medicine to end lives,” he says.
Instead, the organisation will continue focusing on the good palliative care that it already provides, Metzler says.
“We like to think that that’s what we’re here to do.”
Gore Health is run as a community trust rather than a Crown entity.
As a result, it is in the fortunate position of being able to refuse to offer the assisted dying service, Metzler says.
Gore Hospital offers a range of integrated services, including a 24/7 Emergency Department, Maternity Service, GP and Dental practices as well as the health centre.
Official referendum results for the End of Life Choice Bill released on Friday showed overwhelming support for the bill from the New Zealand public.
Nonetheless, there is still uneasiness about assisted dying among physicians, Metzler says.
The bill allows terminally ill patients over the age of 18, who have less than six months left to live, the right to ask their doctors to help them end their lives.
In the Southland electorate, 68.28 per cent of voters voted in favour of the bill.
Just over 63 percent of voters in the Invercargill electorate voted for the bill, and 65.5 percent of voters in the Taieri electorate were in favour of it.
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