Call for Taumarunui Hospital to service Waimarino

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 595, 18 July 1995, Page 1

Call for Taumarunui Hospital to service Waimarino

Agroup of doctors is calling for Taumarunui Hospital to be the provider of emergency hos pital care for the Waimarino. Taumarunui is about 55 minutes' drive from the Waimarino, while Wanganui is about 65-70 minutes' drive. Up to 27,000 people in the Ruapehu and Taumarunui regions would not have access to a 24-hour emergency service within one hour, other than that provided by GPs,

lf recommendations of a community consultation report released by the Midland Regional Health Authority are accepted, says the Coalition for Public Health. During the ski season, the population in the area increases considerably. Even without the skiers the base population for the Ruapehu District and Turangi is close to 20,000. "The coalition is concerned that this considerable number of people will not have access to a regional trauma service, with surgical and specialist backup, within the first 'golden hour' of an emergency," said coalition spokesperson Dr Peter Roberts. "GPs in rural district are being put under pressure to perform functions that they are inadequately trained for, namely the stabilisation of seriously injured or ill patients before transfer. These services are normally provided by locally based surgeons, physicians and anaesthetists," said Dr Roberts. The General Practitioners' Association and the Medical Association have warned that patients' safety could be put at risk if GPs are required to work be-

yond their limitations, in terms of skills, experience, training and workloads. "Such risks will be avoided if Taumarunui maintains a general hospital, including a surgical unit staffed by local surgeons," claimed Dr Roberts. "Services at the hospital have been whittled away over the last few years as part of the Government's policy of centralisation. However, the hospital' s general medical and surgical services have a

potentialcatchment population of around 35,000ifTurangi and all the communities within the Ruapehu and Waitomo Districts are included." A proposal to expand Taumarunui 's catchment area in this way, encompassing a number of isolated communities, was promoted by Paul Malpass - currently Midland Health 's medical adviser - in 1991 when he chaired the Turn to Page 2

Call for Taumarunui Hospital to service Waimarino

FROMPAGE1 Tongariro Community Health Liaison District Committee. Mr Malpass also said Waimarino people' s health would be put at risk if they could not go to Taumarunui for their secondary care. The coalition notes that the Minister of Health, Jenny Shipley, was reported as saying Ashburton, with a district populations of 24,500 was "right on the margin" required to make a

surgical unit viable (Otago Daily Times, 10 May). 'Taumarunui Hospital' s potential for providing more services as a regional general hospital has been overlooked in the report, which instead reflects a strong RHA policy line of reducing rural hospitals to extended GP clinics, with visiting specialists providing outpatient services and day surgery two or three days a week - all subject to users charges," say Dr Roberts.

The coalition, in it submission to the RHA on the report' s recommendations, proposes two surgeons providing general surgical services be based in Taumarunui, thereby maintaining current surgical services in that hospital. Failing to cope In each of the Hamilton, W anganui and Rotorua hospitals, services are failing to cope with current demands and waiting lists and waiting times for general surgery are increasing. A coalition survey of crown health enterprises shows thatbetween June 1993 and September 1994. general surgery waiting lists increased by 13 per cent at Health Waikato, 70percent at Good Health Wanganui and 44 per cent at Lakeland Health. As of September last year, more than 2000 people were waiting for general surgery in those three CHEs. "Indicators since then suggest this figure is getting worse," said Dr Roberts. "And the planned

cuts to services at Wanganui can only add to the difficulties of access to services such as general surgery for the communities in Raetihi, Ohakune and Waiouru. "Directing patients requiring general surgery to Taumarunui from a broader catchment area will not only ensure Taumarunui Hospi-

tal remains viable as a general hospital, but will provide for safer, more appropriate emergency services, improve access to general surgery for the central North Island area and case the mounting pressure on services in Hamilton, Rotorua and Wanganui," said Dr Roberts.