New medical unit’s future hampered

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 6

New medical unit’s future hampered

The efficiency of the new SI.6M spinal injuries unit at Burwood Hospital, due to open later this year, could be jeopardised by piecemeal planning. ; This was the view expressed by Mrs Mollie Clarke [and Mr W. L. F. Utley at I yesterday’s meeting of the ! works committee of the I North Canterbury Hospital Board. In a discussion, which often became heated, about the place of the proposed S3M physical medicine de-

partment at the hospital, Mr Utley and later Mrs Clarke both said that the special needs of the spinal unit seemed to have been lost in a long list of confused planning arrangements. No agreement has been reached on whether the proposed physical medicine department should be designed to serve only the spinal unit or whether it should be planned in such a way that it might one day meet the needs of the Burwood Hos-i

pital when it reached a size ! of up to 800 beds. Mr Utley decried suggestions that further surveys be I conducted into what was needed in the proposed department. It was clear, he I saicj, that the spinal injuries unit would not open with a gymnasium .and swimming pool and until it had these it could not work as a national I unit. Mrs Clarke said that she i was amazed that planning: problems were still occurring, > over the new spinal uni; ■ The “hotchpotch” approach ' to planning was an indict- ■ 1 ment of the whole Hospital j Board, she said. It seemed i< that to approach, at this late < stage, a decision of where i I future buildings at the Bur-jl wood Hospital might go, it

while still recognising the importance of the spinal unit, was like moving along “with blinkers and dark glasses.” Mr Utley said that what the Department of Health might seem to approve, was often different when personal contact was made with departmental officers when they recently visited the Burwood Hospital. “No-one seems to know what is going to happen to Burwood in 10 years,” he said. “We should find out what we want. It is impossible to accept further delays while user groups work out what is needed for Burw'oodj as a whole, however. Wei certainly cannot have a na-j tional spinal unit here with’ no gymnasium or swimming! pool.”

One important aspect which must be considered, but did not appear to have been, in the planning of the physical medicine department was the vital need to keep all spinal unit staff together, as they worked as a team. If they were forced to work in other areas because of the' design of the building, such! team work would be seri-| ously hampered, Mr Utley! said. He also criticised the! arrangements proposed re- I garding the appointment of: senior staff in the new unit.; Because the person who; would be most appropriate: for one of the senior posts I would have to take a drop in salary when he transferred; to the Burwood Hospital, it; was a matter of urgency that this matter be clarified. The reduction in salary is calculated on the smaller size of the Burwood Hospital compared to the Christchurch Hospital, where the spinal unit is now sited.

In the interests too, of the health of patients transferred to the new unit, Mr Utley said, nothing should be done which might jeopardise the appointment of skiller, experienced staff. “We have some of the vilest ‘bugs’ in creation lurking in wail cracks, plug holes, and the like in our present unit,” Mr Utley said. “They are resistant to all known! forms of anti-bodies and they ' get into the bladders of our! paralysed people. God help' anyone who transfers these! ‘bugs’ to our new unit,” he! said. “When we move to Bur-! wood it will take sometime! to change over to changed! techniques in new facilities.! It will require a seven-day! week, 24-hours-a-day cover- 1 age by experienced staff.'! Therefore we must employ

jour staff early on. At present, j however, we cannot know j who we can employ.” The board’s chief execu- ' tive (Mr R. I. Parker) assured [Mr Utley that although the Government had received twice as many applications for finance to open new projects than there was money available, the request for commissioning grants for the spinal unit ‘‘had a very good chance of success.”