Levin’s eldercare health services ‘under threat’ amid review

The future of elderly care and rehabilitation services in Levin is ‘‘under threat’’ after struggling to find a doctor for more than a year.

Health officials are also copping flak over plans not to consult the public about their next move.

The Horowhenua Health Centre’s STAR 4 unit has three doctors, but a pending retirement has raised doubts about whether it can continue.

Dr Fred Hirst, the man who established the service, says the struggle to find a replacement leaves its future ‘‘under threat’’.

‘‘How do two doctors provide a 24/7 service and look after their health? And how long can they sustain it for?’’

Midcentral DHB has reassured people there is no risk to the service.

But Hirst said the issue was identified in May 2015 and little had been done since.

He said it had taken months to get a project manager to lead a review of the services.

The retiring doctor worked part-time and helped cover for the other two as well.

Asking people to go to Palmerston North was not an option because Horowhenua was a lowsocio-economic area and had poor public transport, Hirst said.

Midcentral clinical services and transformation general manager Mike Grant sent a memo to staff in October saying a review was ‘‘urgently required’’.

Grant’s memo said the DHB would need to put in ‘‘contingency arrangements’’ that were ‘‘not clinically or financially sustainable’’ and ‘‘not ideal from a service continuity perspective’’.

The DHB had struggled to find a replacement because the doctor worked so few hours, and Grant acknowledged the doctor’s retirement date had been extended several times.

The memo also said the public would not be consulted on the matter, but Grant told the Manawatu Standard the community would be consulted ‘‘once we get a sense of the way forward’’.

He said there would be no risk to the services and the DHB was trying to work with GPS in the area.

He could not say how long the health centre would be without a third doctor and expected to know more by January.

Delays in dealing with the situation were because staff were working on more important projects, Grant said.

Labour health spokeswoman Annette King said the suggestion of no public consultation raised alarm bells and people should get a say.

Horowhenua would naturally be suspicious after previous attempts by the DHB to scale back the centre, she said.