Radiology to regain accreditation status

Dunedin Hospital's troubled radiology department may be about to regain its status as an accredited facility.

A year ago International Accreditation New Zealand - a Crown entity which audits laboratories and inspection bodies and certifies their competence - declined to accredit Dunedin Hospital's radiology department.

IANZ's issues ranged from asbestos and other issues with the quality of the department's facilities, to its information system and the long waiting lists for scans, particularly MRIs.

The department was still able to function but unable to claim recompense for any ACC work.

Southern District Health Board has spent the past 12 months working through IANZ's list of corrective measures, and has carried out building work, hired new staff, run extra clinics, and negotiated a possible solution to its IT issues.

SDHB specialist services executive director Patrick Ng yesterday told an SDHB commissioners meeting in Invercargill that IANZ had visited the department recently, assessing progress before a reaccreditation inspection was booked.

''That was very positive and we were congratulated on the progress we have made.''

IANZ did comment that the SDHB needed to consider its longer-term planning for hospital CT capacity and Mr Ng said that was being investigated.

The service has now fully recruited required staff to run weekend MRI sessions and evening CT scans.

In December last year 56.4% of patients referred for elective MRIs received their report within 42 days - the target is 85%.

That was a big improvement from July 2018 when the figure was just 36%. The November figures were the best for two years.

Numbers were expected to drop in January, but then continue to improve as new staff began work, he said.

The report noted the ''Faster Cancer Treatment'' target aiming patients with a high suspicion of cancer receiving their first treatment within 62 days. The SDHB achieved that with 74% of patients, against a 90% target.

Radiotherapy services were running extra sessions and more surgical sessions were allocated to catch up that waiting list.

mike.houlahan@odt.co.nz