Rise in outpatient services despite slower-than-expected progress

While progress on some National Health Board recommendations may not be as great as anticipated, more outpatient services are being offered at Queenstown's hospital and doctors are more able to specialise, cutting the need for Wakatipu patients to travel for healthcare.

This was the verdict of the Wakatipu Health Reference Group in its annual report for 2012, released yesterday. The six-member health watchdog group, chaired by Queenstown Lakes Mayor and representative Vanessa van Uden, said ''significant progress'' had been made on developing the concept of a health campus for the Wakatipu on the Lakes District Hospital site, as the National Health Board had proposed among its 21 recommendations in August 2011.

''In the near future, we will have a CT scanner located in Dunstan,'' the report said.

''The location of a CT scanner at Dunstan will undeniably provide a significant increase in service for the Wakatipu community in terms of accessibility. As a group, we are comfortable with this outcome and it is hoped that as part of the campus development we will see even more availability of imaging in the Wakatipu such as MRI and/or CT scanning,'' the report said.

Ms van Uden said yesterday nine of the 21 recommendations had been put into practice, and progress was being made with the rest of them. Three of the recommendations urged integration and the Southern District Health Board this year called for expressions of interest from providers developing services at Lakes District Hospital.

The DHB was working to introduce services and expand others at the hospital with Southern Cross Hospitals, BUPA, the Queenstown Medical Centre-Southern Cross primary care partnership and Queenstown Pharmacy.