BED SHORTAGE DENIED
‘Excellent’ ICU capacity across the country, Coleman says
HEALTH Minister Jonathan Coleman yesterday deflected claims there was a shortage of intensive care unit beds at Dunedin Hospital, saying there were sufficient nationally to cope.
During a visit to Dunedin Hospital, Dr Coleman said the South Island had enough ICU beds to cope with increased demand and Dunedin normally did, too.
In rejecting a claim by Labour health spokesman David Clark that there were no ICU beds in the South Island on Tuesday afternoon, Dr Coleman said beds were available in Canterbury and New Zealand had a ‘‘pool’’ of ICU beds.
‘‘It is common practice for people to be moved from DHB to DHB if that is required, so we have got excellent capacity across the country and there is a plan to have more capacity here in Dunedin.’’
An additional 10 highdependency unit beds would be available for use for ICU patients, he said.
On Wednesday, Donna Ballantyne told RNZ that her father, Owen Glover (68), had died of heart complications because his operation at Dunedin Hospital was repeatedly postponed because of a shortage of ICU beds.
The Otago Daily Times also reported recently that Merv Telfer (79), of Mosgiel, had urgent cardiac surgery postponed seven times for the same reason.
Dr Coleman said despite the need to rebuild Dunedin Hospital, which the Government was still working on, he would still feel confident to be a patient at the hospital because of the level of clinical care.
‘‘This hospital produces really good outcomes. Over eight years, numbers of appointments and surgeries have increased . . . You’ve got 80 more doctors and 137 more nurses here . . .
‘‘As I was very happy to eat the food in Dunedin Hospital, I’d be very happy to be a patient here.’’
While in Dunedin, Dr Coleman also spoke to about 450 doctors at the General Practice Conference.
The minister discussed the challenges of addressing the mental health system, the role of technology, being a general practitioner and the need to inspire future doctors.
Access to the very lowcost Access scheme (VLCA), which funded practices with an enrolled population of 50% or more highneeds patients, was problematic, he said.
‘‘The best solution would be a new personalised funding model that is simple and effective.’’
Providing lowcost healthcare to more people would ‘‘inevitably have a big price tag attached to it.’’
Yesterday was World Hepatitis Day and The Chills frontman Martin Phillips met Dr Coleman and Prof Ed Gane to discuss access to hepatitis C treatment in New Zealand.
In May, Mr Phillips went public with his fight against the virus.
Last year, New Zealand was one of 194 countries to adopt the World Health Organisation’s global hepatitis strategy, which aims to eliminate the virus by 2030.
margot.taylor@odt.co.nz