More weight-loss operations are being carried out in the South, and now for the first time at both Southland Hospital and Dunedin Hospital.
This financial year the service would perform up to 27 operations, depending on capacity, rather than 12 to 15 annually.
In April, Southern DHB told the Otago Daily Times it was unable to make use of $8 million extra government funding over four years for weight-loss surgery because it did not have the capacity.
Southern DHB performs operations for other South Island DHBs as well as Otago and Southland patients.
A new recruit at Southland Hospital had enabled the service to expand.
General surgeon Mark Smith would carry out weight-loss surgery in Invercargill and Dunedin. He started at the hospital on Monday and was expected to take a leading role in the service, Southland surgical directorate general manager Lynley Irvine said.
Mrs Irvine said Mr Smith, who moved from Portland, Oregon, but had previously worked in Southland as a registrar, would liaise with Dunedin weight-loss surgeon Prof Andre van Rij.
Because weight-loss surgery required intensive follow-up, and Mr Smith would have other types of operations to perform, it was too soon to say how many weight-loss operations he could perform.
DHB funding and finance general manager Robert Mackway-Jones said the DHB was using the extra funding to help patients in need.
Southern's base volume was 12 operations; this was topped up with $132,000 extra funding for another seven operations.
And the DHB had five to eight unused operations carried over from last year.
