West Coast DHB reveals clinics cut six months ago

The West Coast District Health Board has revealed it's offered no orthopaedic clinics at Buller Hospital for the last six months.

Instead, most patients have had to travel to Grey Base Hospital - a return trip of 200km.

The DHB revealed the lack of service only after questions from the Westport News, which it has taken a month to answer.

The last Buller clinic was held in August last year, said chief medical officer Carol Atmore. There had been occasional private clinics since then.

She did not answer when asked why the DHB had stopped the Buller clinics.

The monthly clinics used to provide 20 to 25 appointments. On that basis, around 150 Buller people have had to go elsewhere since the clinics stopped.

They disappeared after the DHB introduced its new transalpine orthopaedic service last July. The WCDHB stopped employing Auckland-based locum orthopaedic surgeons and replaced them with surgeons from the Canterbury DHB.

At the time, the DHB said orthopaedic locum surgeons were costing $2500 a day, plus expenses, and the arrangement had to stop.

However, the new arrangement means Grey Hospital is without an orthopaedic surgeon for several days a week.

Dr Atmore today acknowledged the transalpine service had had "teething problems" and said the DHB was working closely with the Canterbury DHB to resolve them.

"Once the service is firmly embedded at Grey Base Hospital we will look at how we can improve access for Westport people."

She said this might include telehealth services - using technology to provide medical care at a distance.

However, Buller faces at least another six months without local orthopaedic clinics.

"We hope to have a definitive timeline for the people of Buller in the next six months," Dr Atmore said. "In the meantime services are being provided for people in Buller at Grey Base Hospital.

"We are continually looking at ways to improve our service to ensure the Westport community has good access to orthopaedic services."

She said the transalpine orthopaedic service was giving West Coasters a wide range of sub-speciality care, through the surgeons providing the service out of Grey Base Hospital.

Buller Mayor Pat McManus said today that the DHB had had ample opportunity to tell Buller patients about offering no local orthopaedic clinics and he was concerned it hadn't done so.

- By Lee Scanlon of the Westport News

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