Keen to appoint neuro locum

The South’s depleted neurosurgery ranks may receive urgently needed reinforcement, with the Southern District Health Board hopeful it can recruit a additional locum surgeon.

For many months the service has had just one neurosurgeon, with cases having to be transferred to Christchurch if he was off shift or on leave.

The board announced last month that it was hoping to appoint a new doctor shortly, pending final approval by the Medical Council.

That doctor, if granted a licence, would be appointed jointly by the SDHB and the University of Otago.

That paperwork is yet to approved, but the board was told yesterday a potential locum appointment was being negotiated.

‘‘I believe that locum will be able to do surgery as well as outpatient work,’’ specialist services executive director Patrick Ng said.

Board chairman Dave Cull said it was ‘‘outrageous’’ that a previously appointed neurosurgeon had opted to focus on academic work rather than surgery.

Prof Dirk de Ridder, the first appointee to the Neurological Foundation Chair in Neurosurgery at Otago University, announced in 2016 he would scale back his clinical work and focus on research.

‘‘The community raised a considerable amount of money to get a neurosurgeon here, who decided he didn’t want to be a surgeon,’’ Mr Cull said.

SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said with the volume of cases in the South it made sense to align a neurosurgical role with an academic one.

‘‘We don’t need a number of neurosurgeons for clinical need, we need a number of bodies on the roster in order to enable a reasonable work-life balance which is sustainable for these people, and therefore the academic component was seen as a way of ... creating a sustainable roster.’’

SDHB chief medical officer Nigel Millar said the university offered to fund two half-time roles for academic neurosurgeons after Prof De Ridder’s decision, but it was difficult to fill those posts.

Crown Monitor Andrew Connolly, who is also on the Health Workforce Advisory Board, said there was no quick or simple solution to the shortage of neurosurgeons.

‘‘I know the Minister [of Health, David Clark] is very concerned about the lack of trainees in the at-risk specialties ... there are no New Zealanders training in neurosurgery ... the board is looking to encourage that.’’

Neurosurgery patients in Dunedin continue to be transferred north and cases from South Canterbury are sent to Christchurch rather than south to Dunedin, to reduce pressure on the sole neurosurgeon.

mike.houlahan@odt.co.nz