Do you think neurosurgery services should be retained at Dunedin Hospital?

http://www.petitiononline.com/32088164/petition.html

I have yet to see a cogent argument put forth for the centralisation of neurosurgical services in Christchurch. The city itself is hardly centrally located, in which case the proposal might at least make some sort of sense. Instead, it is what? Two-thirds of the way up the South Island? Indeed, one might reasonably ask what Cantabrians and those to the farther north would think if the proposal called for centralising neurosurgery in Dunedin. My guess is there would be  a huge outcry against such an alignment. And that is what we are seeing and hearing from the 300,000 or so South Islanders who live outside the Canterbury catchment.

I am devastated to learn that doing away with a neurosurgery unit in the lower south island is even being considered.  Yes, this debate is purely about dollars and making Christchurch look good.

I was a patient in the Dunedin Neurosurgery unit over 30 yrs ago when Christchurch did not have the equipment required in their neurosurgery unit. From a personal point of view, this was extremely difficult for the parents of a sick child with 2 siblings at home to be cared for.

The South Island is big enough and enough distance lies between Christchurch and Dunedin to allow for 2 Neurosurgery units. Surely there is adequate catchment population to cater for 2 neurosurgery units?

There is a major lack of consideration of holistic care to patients and their families if the Dunedin Neurosugery unit is closed. Obviously political bodies do not really care for the consequences of families having huge physical and mental distances between them.

Not only is this closure consideration debate a major issue in the health arena, but I would wonder exactly how much consideration has been given to local and national economy and the effects a closure could have on employment of the Southern region. I strongly suggest that this would be a truely disastrous decision, if closure were the final decision.

I would like to tell you why I beleive Neurosurgery should always be retained at Dunedin Hospital.
Not very long ago I had a serious injury to my back and was admitted to DPH for surgery. Because it was my lower back I was put under the care of an orthopedic surgeon who duly operated on my injured back and beleived he had fixed it.

After I came round and was back at my bedside, it was discovered that I couldn't move any part of my lower body. (This came as quite a shock I can tell you!)
For two weeks, physio and the doctors tried to get my legs to work again, but to no avail.

One of the surgeon's registrars even suggested it was all in my head, and that they had got it right.
Eventually the Neurosurgery Dept were called in and then another operation was scheduled to be performed by the neurosurgeon.
This time all was rectified and I have now learnt to walk again. Hpefully, it will be some time before I will be confined to a wheelchair.

Had there not been a Neurosurgery Dept here I would likely be confined to a wheelchair now. [Abridged]

It's lovely to hear all the stories on how having a neurosurgeon in Dunedin saved many lifes. My story isn't like that. Two years ago my dad, who was 51 at the time, fit, healthy and a hard worker, sufferd a stroke. He was in I.C.U and doing not too bad, but a few days later he sufferd a bleed in his brain.

Lucky that at the time there was a neurosurgen at Dunedin Hospital and thay could do the surgery thay had to do. The neurosurgeon spoke to us daily then the decision was to air lift him to Christchurch or Auckland - he just had to get a bit stronger.

A few days later he was awake and talking a bit confused, but he knew what was going on so plans were being made what hospital and when.

Then 2 weeks later, to the day, we were called in to say there was nothing more they could do: the shunt they had put in had come out and there was no surgeon there to put it back in.

They hadn't realised it had come out. We thought it was strange that we hadn't seen the dr that had been looking after him for the past few days,and we later found out that the neurosurgeon that had been there wasnt a permanent neurosurgeon in Dunedin.

My heart sank when we were told he had only a few hours, and what made it worse is that if there was a surgeon at the hospital he could be here today watching his grandkids grow.

So i hope and pray that neurosurgery stays here in Dunedin so no other family has to go through what we had to go through, watching a loved one slip away knowing that a surgeon could have saved his life.

Keep Neurosurgery in Dunedin, it saves lives.

You don't have to be a brain surgeon to work this one out.
I have been working as a nurse at Dunedin hospital for many years. I have also worked in several tertiary intensive care units overseas during my professional life. I am so proud to say that we are able to offer a fantastic level of care to the patients we care for.

I remember being part of "the number one teams" in the world in the neurosurgery and intensive care units at DPH. Teamwork is everything when it comes to saving lives. A neurosurgeon is an integral part of that team. There is just no way around it.

One of the first questions everyone is asking when someone is seriously injured is: have they sustained a head injury? Immediate assessment and intervention planning within a very short time frame is crucial. Those are complex decisions made within the team, often in the emergency room.

There is simply no time to send head scans around the country.
You don’t have to be brain surgeon to work this one out.

Emi Schmidt

Nurse specialist wound care