1"""""# 16/10/99 - Report a shocker on health of Kiwi Kids By Catherine Masters More children suffer illness and die in South Auckland than anywhere else in the country and health workers are sick of it. Paediatricians from Middlemore Hospital have taken eight months to compile a comprehensive report littered with damning and shocking health statistics. Its release follows one of the worst winters the hospital has ever had to cope with. Although the report offers local solutions, the authors hope it will jolt action to stem an ever-increasing tide of child illness. But they concede it will not be easy to fix. Ten per cent of all children in the country - more than 92,000 up to the age of 14 - live in South Auckland. Half of them are in some of the poorest homes nationwide and 9000 have been estimated to have some sort of disability or chronic illness. It is time to "get real," says Dr Adrian Trenholme, a Middlemore paediatrician and one of the authors. He said he could not count the number of children he had seen die from a range of preventable ailments, often contracted in cold, overcrowded homes. "These are New Zealand kids; this is 10 per cent of New Zealand kids and they are doing badly, they really are ... "This isn't about saying to the Government, 'Fix poverty.' "We are saying, 'It's awful. Please recognise it, and if there is anything that can be done [about] these socio-economic drivers of poor health, like housing, let's do it'." The Minister of Health, Wyatt Creech, said the Government was looking at the drivers of poor health. It had helped to finance the report, which was positive because it offered local solutions to local problems. "Look, solving socio-economic problems is not something you can say, 'This is a situation we don't like. Tomorrow we are going to do something and get rid of it.' "What we need to do is concentrate on continually improving our economy ... and continually improving our services." But people also had to take responsibility for themselves, Mr Creech said. "After all, for under-sixes visits to the doctor is free, immunisation is free and there are a heap of programmes in place. "What we are trying to do is [link] it with community work to try to encourage people to take advantage of it." The Labour MP for Mangere and Otara, Taito Phillip Field, said most initiatives were tokenism and did not come close to addressing the main problem, of poverty. "It comes down to inequitable income, unaffordable housing, when families have to pay 50 to 60 per cent of their income in rent - now that's the cause of poverty." Copyright 1999, NZ Herald " says Dr Adrian Trenholme, a Middlemore paediatrician and one of the authors. He said he could not couwx/h`LܖĚ0g+43$hX`3?Yh4 7YhX` 7Y,X`/Y,TQS5JLLbBD,.t 4 6 b a 4 6    q  b a 4 6   Arialsive report littered with damning and shocking health statistics. Its release follows one of t