Boot put into orthotics system

Oamaru man John Baster compares the boots altered by McKinlays Footwear of Dunedin (left) to the...
Oamaru man John Baster compares the boots altered by McKinlays Footwear of Dunedin (left) to the shoes he changed himself (right). Photo by Ben Guild.
Oamaru man John Baster got so tired of waiting a year for his specially designed orthopaedic shoe that he created his own. Ben Guild finds out how changes to the orthotics system are frustrating people who need the service.


One way to understand a person is to walk a mile in their shoes.

However, with John Baster that is not practical.

His shoes are scarce - he only owns two pairs.

And most would struggle to get their foot into his right boot, adapted four years ago by McKinlays Footwear, of Dunedin, to cater for a right ankle 4.5cm thinner than his left.

Finally, the 3.8cm heel on that boot would make it inherently dangerous.

Mr Baster, though, offers an alternative.

"If people want to imagine what it's like, take a telephone book - an Auckland telephone book - and stick it on the bottom of one shoe and then see what's it like to walk around," he said.

A defect at birth left him with a club foot and one leg dramatically shorter, and thinner, than the other.

He has a prescription entitling him to funded footwear, but until recently struggled to find a fitting pair, and dealt with a constant succession of sprained ankles as the muscles in his right leg had not fully formed.

The sprains stopped four and a-half years ago when he walked out of McKinlays.

"It was the first time in my life that I ever had a pair of shoes that fitted " he said. "I was amazed to finally find an outfit with their act together.

"It was a shoe craftsman that made it work. Why the hell are they dismantling that system? It's insanity."

New shoes were needed about a year ago, and Mr Baster, assuming the Southern District Health Board's contract with Orthotics Otago - of which McKinlays were the major shareholder - was still current, went to get another pair.

What followed was a year spent waiting, punctuated by visits to doctors, clinics and hospitals in different locations.

At one point, he waited two months until his schedule suited a doctor from Dunedin.

The doctor came up to Oamaru and without looking at his foot informed him that he did, indeed, have one leg shorter and skinnier than the other.

Another assessment in Dunedin followed, at which he was told he was entitled to the desired orthotics.

It was then he was informed the shoe contract had been outsourced to Christchurch firm Orthotics Centre Ltd.

Fed up with the wait, Mr Baster decided to take action.

"The bottom line is I wanted a pair of shoes, so I made my own," he said.

The amateur cobbler is used to using his hands. He splits his time between Oamaru and Wellington, where he is a "general leading hand" at Weta Workshops.

He is currently working on The Hobbit film, and worked on another Peter Jackson film, King Kong.

"I just want basic footwear so I can work for 10 hours a day on concrete," he said.

Armed with a $20 pair of tennis shoes with velcro ankle-straps, screws, washers and a quantity of wood, he took over a mate's workshop to build himself a shoe.

He quickly learned shoe-making is a craftsman's job. His "pinus radiata heel" is too short, and unbeknown to him, a screw protruding from it has been scarring the wooden floors of friends' houses.

Nigel McKinlay, of McKinlays Footwear, was critical of the tender process, and admitted to being shocked his company had lost the contract to Orthotics Centre Ltd.

"I was absolutely gutted, because we thought we had delivered over the time we had the contract a technically good service in a timely manner," he said.

"The information supplied in the tender document about the Southland service around volumes and level of service [was] deficient and meant it was difficult to make an informed bid.

"The interviewing panel were not competent to assess orthotics or its service delivery.

"I believe [they] gave insufficient weighting to the actual delivery of services on the ground. I would suggest that if an independent assessment of patients was done, you'd find some pretty unhappy chappies."

The previous service supplied through Orthotics Otago had been judged excellent in satisfaction surveys from both patients and providers, and had often catered for people from Southland who were willing to dip into their own pockets rather than use the public system, Mr McKinlay said.

"We were told we were either cheaper or no more expensive than the successful tender.

"What they have essentially done is put in a monopoly provider."

Health board finance and funding manager Robert Mackway-Jones said McKinlays held the contract from July 1, 2001 to April 3, 2011.

"The tender was facilitated through a standard competitive process with many elements considered in the selection process," he said, adding the current orthotics service was comparable to that previously provided.

Nevertheless, Mr Baster says without the correct support he is left "on the back foot" in social situations.

"When you can't stand up straight, it makes it difficult to look people in the eye," he said.

"It [orthotics] makes you feel equal; integrated into society. It's pretty hard to be a limping alpha male."

He acknowledges the price tag of about $1000 is high, but adds that as a willing worker with a disability, that price-tag is the only thing he asks of his tax system.

Mr Baster believes the orthotics service could be run through several providers with a cap on the Government contribution, with the option of a person going to a specialist and, if necessary, making up the difference.

- ben.guild@odt.co.nz

 

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