Call to defend, save our teaching hospital

THE biggest threat to our university and medical school is happening right under our noses. It is time for us to unite to defend our very existence as a university city with a teaching hospital of standing.

In 2014 we lost the accreditation for our intensive care department. The College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand was no longer prepared to let us train new doctors in this specialty. Four years on, intensive care specialists still cannot train at Dunedin Hospital.

We hear that new beds are being finished in the first half of next year, delayed because of finding asbestos on the site, after which reaccreditation will be sought.

Recently, International Accreditation NZ cancelled the accreditation of our radiology department because of concerns such as wait times up to nine months for MRI scans and critical staff shortages, as well as concerns about leaks and asbestos.

Radiology is still allowed to operate but cannot claim ACC revenue, reducing resources available.

Our midwifery services in Otago are in crisis, and the Emergency Department cannot function in a timely fashion.

Unsurprisingly, we are failing to attract staff to our area. According to the

Resident Doctors Association the district is no longer seen as a desirable place to work.

Losing accreditation does not come out of the blue. Long before the pin is finally pulled there have been warnings and advice as to what needs to be done.

Financial officers, health boards, commissioners and politicians have failed us by not providing the support our medical staff need and deserve.

We have fabulous people looking after our health in Otago.

Having a teaching hospital in Dunedin has allowed a synergy between the University of Otago and the hospital, to the benefit of both.

Both the university and hospital are going through restructuring, taking energy and institutional knowledge away from the daily running of the institutions.

It is time to treat the situation like the crisis it is, not a PR opportunity for administrators and government appointees to defend the indefensible.

We should stop playing hideandseek with Dunedin Hospital and concentrate our efforts and attention to supporting our medical staff both clinical and research.

And we should not be expected to be like Pollyanna and pretend all is fine with our health services.

It is time for us to hold the commissioners and the Government to account.

We should be asking questions and demanding answers.

Questions such as:

How and why did you let our accreditation’s lapse? How are you maintaining highquality services through the restructuring? How can an accounting expert credibly provide leadership of a team of doctors and nurses? What resources do you need to fix the problems and what are you doing to get these resources? How did noone know there was asbestos until finding it delayed the new beds in intensive care?

We should keep asking until we are satisfied the commissioners and the Government are providing the services we should have.

If it is in part at least lack of resources, we could lobby Shane Jones to provide regional development funds for this purpose. Apparently, jobs are part of the point of the fund, and it would be regional, and it would fit the new living quality index Treasury will soon be reporting on. It will also particularly benefit the people who have the least resources who also have the poorest health outcomes.

In particular, it will benefit elderly people, who feel overlooked by local spending priorities. If the DCC gets behind the proposal it can feel it has helped elderly people by lobbying central government. And it will not go against any other government objectives such as environmental priorities.

It will be crucial that we speak with one voice, not splitting our support between medical accreditation priorities and, for example, a fancy bridge to the cockleshell harbour.

Apparently, Shane Jones is keen to help us, we need only ask and put a good business case to him.

And although we hear from the Prime Minister that politics will play no part in the allocations from the regional development fund, it surely could do no harm to point out that the Southern District Health area includes enough votes to change the balance of power in the Government, if we all care enough.

We could even directly ask all councils in the region to contribute, since they seem to have spare funds for lifestyle improvement facilities and the like. — hcalvert@xtra.co.nz