A Gisborne-based Maori health provider says 15 staff will lose their jobs, following a decision by the Tairawhiti District Health Board to award mental health contracts to an Auckland-based trust.
Turanga Health has been providing community mental health services to people from Gisborne to the East Coast for the past 13 years.
Chief executive Reweti Ropiha says he is bitterly disappointed at the board's decision, and all the staff who will lose their jobs in four months' time are upset.
He says many of them were born and bred alongside the people they have been helping, and that this has been of great benefit.
Mr Ropiha says the loss of contracts will also cut Turanga Health's income by $400,000.
