Drive to keep hospital shuttle going

Otago Daily Times

2 days ago

Oamaru to Dunedin shuttle driver Trevor Goodin outside Dunedin Hospital in 2023. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH
Trevor Goodin is as busy as ever, helping people get to hospital appointments in Dunedin.
His donation-based minibus shuttle service runs five to six days a week, taking people to Dunedin Hospital for appointments.
The service also did trips to Timaru and Christchurch when needed, Mr Goodin said.
However, at one stage the shuttle service was in danger of folding.
When he first started in June 2023, he was told by Hato Hone St John a service from the organisation was "about a year away".
"That was when I said 'I'll put a shuttle on — we'll make it donation-based until they came on board'.
"June last year, they didn't, and I had to make a decision: do I keep going? What do I do?"
He said the decision to keep going was easy, but making the shuttle viable was the issue.
"We couldn't not get people there. The bottom line is we've got to get people to their appointments because they were cancelling their appointments.
"It looked like I was possibly going to have to close it down at one stage. It just reached a point where it just wasn't viable to keep going and the pockets weren't deep enough."
Observatory Village began sponsoring first and then the Freemasons joined.
Lodge Oamaru Kilwinning No 82 Right Worshipful Master Bruce Cawley said it was a very worthy cause to support.
"We didn't think it was very fair [Mr Goodin] having to fork out all the time. So the lodge got fully involved in helping him to get the whole service running.
"Between our lodge and our grand lodge we managed to pull enough money together to be able to keep him going.
"Anything we can do to raise money to keep this shuttle running until such time as St John come on board, we will try and do," Mr Cawley said.
The shuttle was all about taking care of Oamaruvians, he said.
"It's a service that is required here because we have no bus service to Dunedin until late in the afternoon and that's far too late.
"Oamaru's main population is elderly. They do need to get to hospital. A lot of people don't have their licence to be able to drive any more."
Mr Goodin pays for all maintenance, insurance and running costs, while sponsorship pays for the drivers and fuel.
"I'm extremely thankful for what the lodge and everyone has done," Mr Goodin said.
"We've just got to keep going."
[e-mail]