At a public meeting held in Cromwell yesterday, more than 30 people got a look into the potential future of public healthcare in Central Otago.
In the second of four events across the region, representatives from Health New Zealand (HNZ) and primary health organisation WellSouth shared information about the planning process as well as the region’s current and future healthcare needs with members of the community.
HNZ hospital funding director Rachel Haggerty told the audience about plans to shift care from major hospitals and into the communities.
For high-intensity and high-frequency treatments, such as for cancer, which could involve daily or weekly treatment for weeks or months, travel was one of the issues facing patients in the region.
International studies, which had been proven in New Zealand, showed a person’s survival rate from cancer decreased the further they lived from cancer treatment services.
Barriers such as whether a person could afford to travel or take time off work several times a week for treatment were part of the reason behind lower survival rates, she said.
Therapies that were once considered complex — and only able to be delivered in a hospital — were now seen as straightforward and could be available in community clinics.
HNZ had identified more than 60,000 instances of residents travelling to Dunedin or Invercargill for care, she said.
"If we had one of these new systems, be it a digital care, a local dialysis machine, [intravenous treatment] access for chemotherapy, [the trips] wouldn’t have to happen."
Mental health and addiction support as well as obstetric care were also issues identified in the region.
A thousand obstetric assessments were done in Dunedin every year, but a lot of obstetric assessment did not happen because it was too far for people to travel.
Once clinical service planning was finalised, it would then go to the HNZ board before providing the advice to Minister of Health Simeon Brown to review at the end of the year, she said.
