Neurosurgery resolution unlikely

The battle over neurosurgery services in the South is expected to be placed in the hands of Director-general of Health Stephen McKernan next week.

While the issue is listed on the agenda for the South Island district health board chairmen's meeting today, lead chief executive for South Island health services planning Chris Fleming, of South Canterbury, said it was highly unlikely any resolution would be reached.

Accordingly, under the boards' decision-making process, the matter would have to be referred to the director-general.

The boards have agreed there should be a regional neurosurgery service in the South Island, but the Canterbury board and the southern board are at loggerheads over where the six neurosurgeons should live.

The southern board says two should be in Dunedin, while Canterbury wants all six there.

An independent consultant, Dr Len Brown, was commissioned by the boards to review the service, but the contents of his report have not yet been made public.

Earlier attempts to get the boards to reach consensus failed and a special meeting was held in Dunedin last month to allow people to raise their concerns with Dr Brown.

These included University of Otago representatives concerned at the impact of no neurosurgery service on the school of medicine in Dunedin, senior clinicians from a variety of specialties and Dunedin City Council representatives.

Dunedin has been without a resident neurosurgeon since the resignation of Suzanne Jackson in January last year and, since then, the board has spent $607,000 on locums.

Board finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones said the board had budgeted for spending $858,000.

He was not prepared to say whether that figure was based on using locums for the whole time, or on the cost of employing resident staff.

He did say locums cost more than permanent staff, which was "a problem for everyone".

Because the volume of surgery was down, the amount paid was less than the normal resident cost over the same period.

The board says it has neurosurgeons wanting to come to the city, but it has not been able to offer any positions because of the review of the service.

elspeth.mclean@odt.co.nz

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