District nurse Denise Weatherby started her day on Monday discovering that all of the Waikato DHB staff cars based at a Shakespeare St address had been slashed.
Used by the Cambridge team of district nurses to visit patients, the six cars were stabbed with a slender object on the front and rear drivers’ side wheels.
“You would think that people would see that they’re Waikato DHB cars,” Weatherby said. “I was going out to see patients and didn’t have a car to go in.”
After reporting the incident to Police, eventually she had to resort to using her own car to make it to critical appointments, rebooking all other appointments for later in the week.
“It’s just really inconvenient, and annoying,” she said. “We’ve had to put patients off until tomorrow, we’ve had to prioritise patients, and try get cars for all our nurses.”
Julie Bradbury, charge nurse manager for Waikato DHB community services, said Denise, who manages the Cambridge nurses, was “busy enough as it is” without having to deal with the fallout of the incident.
“It’s very disappointing, our nurses are out there on public holidays trying to help patients,” said Bradbury. “Its very disruptive and stressful.”
As of Tuesday Police were still making enquiries into the incident, investigating whether any CCTV footage was in the area. Cambridge District Nurses confirmed they did not have CCTV footage of the car park.
Tyre Traders Cambridge were working to have the cars fixed by the end of Tuesday, estimating it could have been a dart or possibly a screwdriver than caused the damage.
They said with the low amount of strength required to puncture the tyres in such a way, it easily could have been a juvenile offender.
“It’s pretty low to do it to the DHB cars, because we’re only helping people,” said Dawn Wirihana, a district nurse in Te Awamutu who used to be based out of the Cambridge office.
Dawn confirmed a similar incident had happened at the Cambridge office around ten years ago, where several DHB cars were slashed.
