Neurosurgery

The Southern District Health Board wanted to appoint a neurosurgeon for just two years, rather than for a longer term, causing "some tension" between Dunedin Hospital management and the South Island neurosurgical service, the National Health Board's Dunedin Hospital report reveals.

The South Island neurosurgery service expert panel set up last year to sort out the impasse over the service cost $78,625, the National Health Board says.

Did the Canterbury District Health Board, which for the most part chose to stay silent during the debate over location of South Island neurosurgery services, receive a fair hearing? Documentation released in February suggests it feels it did not, writes Elspeth McLean.

Far from being a deliberate ploy, the five-month delay in releasing correspondence from Canterbury neurosurgeons sought by the Otago Daily Times last December was an oversight, deputy director of the National Health Board Michael Hundleby says.

This month's shortlisting of applicants for two of the three Dunedin-based neurosurgeon positions shows how quickly the South Island Neurosurgical Service has been able to make progress since its first board meeting in January.

While Otago and Southland breathed a sigh of relief after the announcement last November that neurosurgery would be retained in Dunedin, many in New Zealand's neurosurgery community remained unhappy. Correspondence released to the Otago Daily Times shows how the battle raged on behind the scenes.

If the public thought all was sweetness and light in medical circles after the decision to retain neurosurgery in Dunedin, they were mistaken.

The development of neurosurgery at Dunedin Hospital will include the appointment of an extra registrar, it was announced yesterday.

Applications have been received for both recently advertised Dunedin-based neurosurgeon positions, but nobody is saying how many.

More FM Dunedin has won two national awards for the "Save Our Neurosurgery" campaign it ran last year.