A tug of war could be looming over where a CT scanner is based for Central Otago.
A National Health Board panel examining Wakatipu health services has called on the Southern District Health Board to support a CT scanner for the area at Lakes District Hospital, Queenstown.
But Dunstan Hospital, Clyde, has been working towards acquiring a scanner and there is insufficient demand for two across Queenstown and Central Otago.
While Southern board chief executive Brian Rousseau said yesterday he had not been able to read the national board's report in full yet, the CT scanner recommendation jumped out as needing to be considered by the health board when it met in Queenstown on Friday.
He said there would be capital and operating spending to consider as well as location.
Dunstan Hospital had twice the demand as Lakes [district hospital], he said.
Russell McGeorge, the chairman of the company that runs Dunstan Hospital, preferred to wait until after a board meeting next week to comment on the report.
The panel's report said it was aware Dunstan Hospital had been making a case for a CT scanner and the rationale was the same as at Lakes District Hospital. But it was very clear only one was needed across the region.
"Because of a busy emergency department and the nature of the cases arriving at Lakes District Hospital, including a relatively high volume of trauma cases, that hospital would have higher numbers of patients requiring urgent and emergency CT scans," the panel said.
"For the emergency category of patients benefiting from a CT scan, the substantive argument for a CT scanner at Lakes District Hospital relates to patient safety."
For the urgent category of patients, the arguments related to safety, convenience and efficiency, the panel said.
The distance from a base hospital was another factor in favour of a scanner based at Frankton.
The national board recommended a new senior manager's role be created in the southern board's executive with responsibilities for Southern Lakes and Central Otago health services.
Mr Rousseau said the board already had a planning and funding general manager who was responsible for health service contracting.
The southern board "certainly agreed" with many of the recommendations, such as greater regional integration, and he thought many were already in line with policies.
The chief executive and the board will ask for the panel's justifications behind their initiatives on Friday.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden said yesterday the panel recommendations "are a positive outcome to the community consultation process and the council will work with the Southern DHB in any way it can to ensure that the matter moves forward from this point".
The Wakatipu Health Trust was "very heartened and feels very positive" about the recommendations, especially the advice to retain the hospital on its existing site with the emergency department intact and at least eight full-time medical staff on roster, executive officer Maria Cole said yesterday.
The success of the recommendations depended on how robust the proposed governance structure additions of a "community reference group" and a second-tier manager for health in the Southern Lakes and Central Otago would be to drive through the changes, she said.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell, of Wellington, said yesterday the NHB report "vindicated the issues we've been raising".
The report debunked the board arguments the hospital was financially and clinically unsustainable. The association supported the recommendation to expand the hospital.
Queenstown Medical Centre chief operating officer Shane Zeederberg said yesterday the company was pleased to see recommendations to retain the hospital and create the second-tier managerial position within the board executive.
"To actually have someone of substance in the DHB who's tasked with focusing on us as a fairly large area with reasonably significant health needs is a step in the right direction."
