Patient Voice Aotearoa was in Oamaru on Wednesday to bring a petition which grew out of a Westport protest over cuts to its health services.
The Buller Declaration was launched on September 28 as a result of a public outcry in the north West Coast town.
It is a wide-ranging call for the health system to be fixed.
It also emerged just as the campaign for Dunedin Hospital heated up.
Westport turned out in force on September 28 over leaked Health NZ plans to cull its after-hours medical and GP services in a 2000-strong march in a town of fewer than 5000.
The declaration says the New Zealand health system is in a state of crisis, the Government must address it, and that rural, Maori and low-income people are disproportionately affected.
Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher said the petition was "extremely worthy".
"The declaration, like a lot of things around rural New Zealand, significantly matches our concerns," he said.
Mr Kircher encouraged people to take the opportunity to sign the declaration once a location in town was finalised.
Hopefully, the petition would go to other areas across Waitaki, including Kurow and Palmerston, he said.
Buller got a new hospital replacement, Te Rau Kawakawa, in Westport in May 2023.
But it has been intermittently closed since due to staffing difficulties.
Residents have been told at times by Health NZ to resort to dialling 111 in a medical emergency.
The nearest hospital is Te Nikau Greymouth Hospital, 100km away.
Buller Health Action Group spokesman Paul Scanlon said this week the regions could no longer be complacent at the incremental health cuts across the system.
The Buller Declaration was about making a stand for equitable health service access everywhere.
"I never really seen myself as a protester, but there is quite a bit of lethargy around the issue," he said.
"It all started because it got leaked we were going to lose our after hours and GP services — no consultation."
While the declaration had Buller’s name appended to it, it was really to mobilise "the rest of the country," Mr Scanlon said.
The declaration was signed by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network, and the New Zealand Royal College of General Practitioners.
Patient Voice Aotearoa spokesman Malcolm Mulholland said they had been "blown away" by the support for a South Island road show this week bringing the declaration to Oamaru, Dunedin, Timaru, Ashburton and Christchurch.
There was no timeframe yet on delivering it to parliament.
"We’ll wait and see, as it is continuously growing strong.’
"The health system is in crisis — the government needs to ultimately fix it," he said.
Further information is available at https://www.mylifematters.org.nz/
— Additional reporting Jules Chin
