With a focus on understanding the impacts of these health cuts on the right to health, and communicating this to those in charge and the wider public. From Newtown, Wellington, UCAN NZ , is becoming a nation-wide Network.
UCAN aims to:
- Contribute to Treaty based processes that align the rights recognised in Articles 2 and 3 of Te Titiri o Waitingi, and universal rights to Primary Health.
- Gather information, personal stories and data about the undermining of Primary Health in New Zealand.
- Encourage and cooperate with local communities and national alliances to resist cuts that increase poverty and deprive people of their right to health care.
- Negotiate and debate with governance bodies and representatives responsible for ensuring universal rights to Primary Health are upheld and protected.
- Support those who decide to assert their legal rights to safe, equitable and responsive Primary Health Care
- Work towards a viable and sustainable system of public and Primary Health Care.
UCAN is affiliated with no political party.
United Community Action Network
The United Community Action Network (UCAN) is a collective of individuals and organisations working to implement the UCAN Health Charter. 20 organisations have endorsed the Charter.
The Health Charter outlines a set of basic rights that everyone should be able to claim confidently to obtain resources that are directly relevant to their personal circumstances.
UCAN formed in response to decisions by Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) to limit the services and funding for the Newtown Health Centre, and to close services for, or fail to protect, people with mental illness.
In effect CCDHB extinguished the vision of the South East and City Primary Health Organisation (SECPHO) as an integrated effective health service for people with high or special health needs. UCAN members hope that the locality networks proposed in the 2021 reorganisation of the public health system revive that vision.
UCAN contributes to this process by providing grassroots feedback and practical suggestions that build towards full implementation of the Health Charter.
To read more about the UCAN Charter for Health, please click the button below (includes 2 videos).
UCAN - United Community Action Network Aotearoa NZ 