Nearest emergency doctor 100km away
Staff shortages have forced Westport’s new health centre to close four times in nine months, prompting the district’s mayor to raise concerns about the “urgent and unacceptable risk to health” it creates for isolated and vulnerable residents.
Buller has a population of about 9500, with a median age of 49.6 – 13 years older than the national median of 37.4 years, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The hospital in its biggest town, Westport (population 4660), was replaced with a new facility, Te Rau Kawakawa, in May, but it has been plagued with staff shortages ever since, at times forcing patients to travel 100km for urgent care.
Buller mayor Jamie Cleine wrote to Minister of Health Shane Reti about his concerns following the latest closure – 8.30am Friday to 8.30am Monday – due to the unavailability of doctors.
The facility had been closed at weekends and overnight four times in the nine months since it opened, always due to a shortage of nurses or doctors.
“This means current in-patients are being discharged or transferred to Te Nikau Hospital in Greymouth. It also means there is no acute stabilisation unit available to provide any kind of hospital based A&E/urgent care in Westport,” Cleine said.
He understood local medical and management staff were working hard to avoid the critical gap in doctor coverage, he said.
“They are dealing with a doctor resource that is spread too thin to maintain critical services. This must also put extreme pressure on nursing staff and St John to provide services without the back-up of a doctor or access to acute stabilisation facilities.”
Te Rau Kawakawa was an outstanding investment but the Ministry of Health’s inability to ensure it had enough staff was “untenable for an isolated and vulnerable community”, he said. “This has exposed the community to additional risk to health outcomes and erodes public confidence in the health services available in Buller.”
Cleine asked the minister to ensure urgent resource was made available to ensure there were doctors in the Buller district this weekend. “The status quo is totally unacceptable.”
A St John spokesperson said six patients were taken by ambulance to the emergency department at Te Nikau Hospital in Greymouth during the Westport facility’s latest closure. One person was also taken there by helicopter. “Five would have been transported to Te Nikau anyway as they required treatment at the nearest emergency department.”
Reti acknowledged Cleine’s concerns in a return letter. “I am advised that health care services remain available in Westport and wider Buller communities. As you are aware, due to staffing issues at Buller Health alternate arrangements for acute care may be necessary at times,” he wrote.
People should still call 111 in case of emergency, and a specially trained nurse or GP was available on-call to respond if needed.
“Our health workf orce is under pressure, but it is not an issue unique to the West Coast or New Zealand, we are experiencing a global health work force crisis.”