Your views on retaining neurosurgery services at Dunedin Hospital.
It is of great concern that neurosurgeons may no longer be based in Dunedin Hospital.
The absence of these important members of the health care team would be to the great detriment of medical services not only to Dunedin but to the whole southern region.
First and foremost, neurosurgeons are often needed in emergency situations where immediate action is required; every hour of delay often puts the patient not only at risk of death but increases the chances of longstanding or permanent brain injury and its dreadful consequences.
The potential costs of any delay is immense to the patients, their families, ACC and society as a whole.
Having six neurosurgeons in Christchurch and none in Dunedin does not make medical or economic sense.
It panders to bureaucracy and parochialism rather than what is most appropriate for the needs of the population.
Asking general surgeons to work outside their area of expertise by entering the skull in patients in emergency situations (where this may present unexpected hazards and with patients who are often in an unstable general state) verges on the unethical, especially when a perfectly well functioning professional alternative has been terminated.
The fact that the potential closure of the Dunedin unit could be regarded as a political act only adds to the perceived immensity of the problem.
Importantly, neurosurgery is an integral part of the teaching and academic balance of Dunedin Hospital.
This becomes essential for postgraduate education, particularly in the intensive care, anaesthetics, medical and surgical situations.
Threatening the registration of our specialist trainees would be an immense degrading of the proud tradition of Dunedin Hospital as a teaching unit and also of the Otago Medical School.
I urge the Government most strongly to ensure that full neurosurgery services are retained in Dunedin Hospital and the Dunedin School of Medicine.
Dr Gil Barbezat
Roslyn
Dr Barbezat is emeritus professor of medicine and previous senior clinician and chairman of general medical staff, Dunedin Hospital.
I am truly worried by the prospect that Dunedin Hospital could lose its neurosurgery services.
I believe that people living in the southern areas of the country could have their health and safety seriously compromised.
I believe that the "Golden Hour" will be compromised and people in the South will be the victims.
When I had a young family, we were privileged to have access to a first-class service at the Balclutha Hospital, where some of my children and I had several necessary operations.
In spite of a public outcry at the time and a march in Dunedin, which our whole family supported, Balclutha Hospital was downgraded to a "cottage hospital" where only minor ailments could be treated.
As a primary school teacher, I was ashamed to tell parents that they would have to travel to Dunedin to get broken bones set.
Please don't let Dunedin Hospital lose its neurosurgery services.
Southland, South Otago, Central Otago and North Otago cover a large portion of the South Island and in many areas the roads are in poor condition.
Travel, especially to reach Dunedin from outlying areas, can be horrendous for a person in acute pain.
I believe that this significantly lessens the safety of the people living down here.
I cannot express in words the debts that I owe to the Dunedin Hospital neurosurgeons.
The Otago Medical School has an international reputation and today's students must have the opportunity to study this vital branch of medicine.
No valid reasons have been put forward for change and on radio it was stated that the cost of relocating to Christchurch was going to be higher than retaining the status quo.
How can this Government justify this extra spending when our country's debt rises daily?
Rata Garside
Pukehiki [Abridged]
In 1987, my wife Robyn suffered a brain aneurysm.
Correctly diagnosed by our local GP, she was transferred to Dunedin Hospital's neurosurgery ward where she was operated on by the now retired Prof Sam Bishara.
Five operations and six weeks later, she was able to come home in time for Christmas.
The neurosurgery team on the fifth floor were superb while the proximity of Dunedin to Invercargill meant my young children were able to make regular visits to see their mother.
Neurosurgical services must be retained in Dunedin.
Brian Kenning
Invercargill
Well done, the Otago Daily Times, Richard Thomson and Samuel Mann and all those who have spoken up and thrown their weight behind the effort to preserve neurosurgical services in Dunedin.
Congratulations to Brian Rousseau and the Southern District Health Board for proactively making the two appointments.
However, it has become clear that the current decision-making process is loaded against our city.
The Government and the Director-general of Health appear to have abdicated responsibility for making the right clinical decision.
It seems likely that a combination of predetermined agendas, parochial regional competition and even ill-will on the part of some Christchurch specialists will deprive our region of an essential life-saving service.
That is unacceptable.
Leaders at the highest levels in our city should be making it crystal clear Dunedin will not tolerate a decision that compromises patient safety and our city's long-term educational and economic wellbeing.
Cr Dave Cull
Dunedin [Abridged]
Most people will consider that they will never need neurosurgery and, in fact, most people are unlikely to even know someone who has had it.
I can tell you from personal experience that it is a very frightening experience.
An operation on other parts of your body does not even come close to that anxiety you experience having your brain operated on.
To think that it is even being considered that the service be moved to Christchurch is an outrage.
If you have never had neurosurgery, you will have no idea just how important having your family and friends close by helps you to see this ordeal through.
Ken Trevathan
Mosgiel
The photograph of Health Minister Tony Ryall (ODT, 30.7.10) showed him in front of a Dunedin Hospital sign which reads: "Dunedin Hospital, Public Entrance, Emergency."
This is very appropriate.
I, like thousands of southern people, would see the removal of the neurosurgical unit from the Dunedin Hospital as more than an emergency but as an absolute disaster in more ways than one.
We, the people of the South, must speak with one voice that we deplore the prospect of losing the unit.
A no-brainer, true, but where is the compassion and common sense or are they not so common today?
People before politics, please, or is that just being brainless?
Wayne Healey
Oamaru
Closing the neurosurgical unit would be a great loss to Dunedin.
We need to retain it both for southern people and for its links to the Otago Medical School, which would be deprived of patients for learning purposes.
The medical school would be badly affected and might eventually have to be moved to Christchurch.
We need to fight to keep the neurosurgery unit here.
Keri Teavae
Mornington [Abridged]
Otago and Southland will experience a minerals boom in coming years.
Already there is a major new goldmine in the Serpentine area, northeast of Alexandra, and 12 offshore oil wells are proposed over the next two years.
These are expected to create about 3500 jobs.
In the longer term, there is the likelihood of large operations developing oil and gas reserves in the Great South Basin.
Inherent in mineral operations is a high risk of crush and trauma injuries, for the treatment of which neurosurgical services are essential.
So far this season, there have been seven head-injury cases involving tourists, skiers and snowboarders on Otago skifields, which attract overseas visitors as well as many from Auckland.
Provision for emergency brain surgery locally is vital.
The mining industry is concerned at the loss of a fundamental medical service.
The industry has obligations under Health and Safety in Employment legislation and regulations.
Accordingly, I warn that if neurosurgery services are withdrawn at Dunedin Hospital, the industry reserves the right to pursue the matter in the High Court.
Brian Jackson
Oturehua [Abridged]
