Accreditation review for radiology in June

SOUTHERN District Health Board says it will seek an accreditation review of Dunedin hospital’s radiology department next month.

Concerns with long waiting lists, inadequate facilities, issues with recordkeeping and a lack of qualified staff meant the hospital was stripped of its International Accreditation New Zealand accreditation in March.

While the department can continue to function, lack of accreditation means it cannot receive funding for ACC work.

A report to be presented to an SDHB hospital advisory committee meeting today shows considerable work has been done in the department in recent weeks.

SDHB management has consistently stated it hoped to regain accreditation, and the report said it would apply for a review in June.

‘‘Facilities work required for reaccreditation is complete and we are now seeking support from the health and safety team to complete a health and safety checklist.’’

The building housing radiology has major issues with leaking and asbestos, and the February IANZ report to the SDHB said asbestos mitigation work had not been finished or tested.

Today’s HAC report said the SDHB was in the process of recruiting CT and MRI staff to work additional shifts and MRI staff were working weekends to help deal with the backlog of scans: some patients have been told they could wait for up to nine months for a scan.

‘‘Whilst it can be challenging to recruit MRT staff outside of the graduation cycles, we have utilised recruitment agencies and have received some applications to consider,’’ the report said.

IANZ also had issues with radiology information systems — the SDHB’s system is about to become outdated.

Today’s report said the supplier of the SDHB’s radiology information system had confirmed it would provide extended support until mid 2020.

The report said work done in recent months ‘‘should provide us with sufficient evidence that we have solid plans around addressing the accreditation issues.’’