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Hero image for Weekly Review No. 332 - Hokianga ... Backblock Medical Service

Weekly Review No. 332 - Hokianga ... Backblock Medical Service

Short Film (Full Length) – 1948

This NFU film looks at the challenges of delivering health services to the large, sparsely populated Hokianga district after World War II. The Weekly Review doesn’t flinch from facing the poverty and poor housing of the mostly Māori population. District nurses carry much of the burden, and doctors and nurses from Rawene Hospital travel by car, foot, boat and horseback to attend clinics and emergencies; including the legendary Dr George McCall Smith — responsible for setting up the Hokianga Special Medical Area. The film’s score was composed by Douglas Lilburn.

Nine thousand people live in this county (Hokianga) and near each of the larger settlement areas there’s a clinic hutment built and equipped by the medical service.
– Narrator