Surgeons on the way – by 2024
Christchurch will continue airdropping children’s surgeons into Wellington for another year, as the capital’s paediatric unit will remain understaffed until the end of 2024, official information shows.
Despite the capital having a brand-new children’s hospital, the title of Wellington’s clinical lead belongs to a Christchurch surgeon, who has outlined the ‘‘significant’’ toll flying between the two cities has taken on him, his colleagues and their families.
Wellington’s paediatric surgical team – which contains four fulltime positions – has been short-staffed for a full year, with specialists from Christchurch and Waikato helping since April. The unit currently has just one paediatric surgeon on staff.
‘‘It would be fair to say it is taking its toll,’’ said Dr Spencer Beasley, clinical director for the paediatric departments in both Wellington and Christchurch.
Beasley spoke to The Dominion Post while en route to Wellington Airport following a clinic in Masterton, which, along with much of the lower North Island, is the responsibility of Wellington’s paediatric surgeons – or in this case, Christchurch’s. This includes emergency surgeries, planned care, and everything in between.
Beasley has nine children, and most of his surgical colleagues have children in school.
‘‘Every time we go away for 2-3 days at a time, our partners effectively become solo parents . . . So it has placed a significant burden on our partners, and tested their resilience and patience with us,’’ he said.
‘‘But on the other hand, we could see no other way of ensuring that the children of Wellington and the lower North Island could get safe emergency care and planned care.’’
Wellington had recruited three new ‘‘excellent’’ paediatric surgeons, Beasley said.
While one was a New Zealander, all three were currently overseas and ‘‘require some time to wind up their current clinical practices’’, Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand said in a response released under the Official Information Act.
But no permanent staff will begin until July – with the last starting in about November 2024.
Beasley said one would do a four-month stint from February, before completing training overseas, which would bring night cover and lighten the load in the short term.
The understaffing meant the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) had paused Wellington Hospital’s ability to train new paediatric surgeons.
It won’t be reinspected until early 2024, once some new staff are in place.
Usually, Wellington Hospital would have one trainee position for registrars – junior doctors who cover nights, weekends and 24-hour rosters, said Sarah Dalton, chief executive for the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.
When those staff members weren’t there, more responsibility fell on consultants.
‘‘Once people start working
nights, they can’t be working the daytime as well,’’ Dalton said.
It also meant ‘‘they’re not able to contribute to the next generation of specialists for that period of time’’.
RACS paediatric surgery spokesperson Dr Neil Price said accreditation was given when a hospital had the ‘‘facilities, workload, work practices and staffing to train a surgeon(s) in that specialty’’.
Asked how things had become so bad in Wellington, Beasley declined to go into detail, but said ‘‘there were a whole series of events that happened in rapid succession’’.
Everyone working in the unit wanted to avoid a repeat of the current situation, he said.
‘‘As a result of all this effort and inconvenience we have endured, we believe we are providing the groundwork for the unit to become a very good one that will serve the needs of the Wellington region very well.’’
The arrangement has cost Te Whatu Ora – Capital, Coast & Hutt Valley – a total of $503,642 between April and September. While the lion’s share is made up of surgeon’s fees, $60,642 was spent on travel, accommodation and meals for the locum surgeons. The region’s director of provider services, Joy Farley, said costs were offset by the vacancies, meaning they remained within the paediatric surgery budget.
Asked what the arrangement was expected to cost, she could not provide an estimate but said costs would decrease as new staff came on board.