Labour may reject open heart unit

Press, 17 July 1978, Page 6

Labour may reject open heart unit

By

JOHN BROWN

Plans for Christchm i S2XI open heart unit can expect another jolt when the Labour Party's health policy for this year s election is released on July 31.

inunity health < that expensive health “units < existing units be fully used.lt Value for the SB(MM which Ness Zealand pentte on | health each year is a prere I quisite for any more growth ■ policy matches curaraents < made last week by a visitingli professor of community ( medicine at ’he Wellington < Clinical School, Professor ] John McKinlay. He said that the decision i to go ahead with the $2Mt! Christchurch open heart unitli was “illogical’’ because New Zealand could not afford it. ; The Labour party policy fol- ; lows a similar general line.; In an address to a candi-a dates’ conference in Welling ton yesterday - released to I “The Press” last evening —

that "need should be patient, j or public initiated’’ and noth de-ermined bit the "system.” < Erecting units and then < looking for “customers" wash no wav to ensure effective < or efficient use of scarce 1 health funds,Mr Hunt said. || If °lected. Lr.iour is un-h likely to give am. more than I a token assurance on the t Christchurch unit because it! > ha- alreadv been established; that the Dunedin onen heart , unit is ‘funder-used.” To go

ahead with rhe Christchurch; uni» therefore would not conform to the party's belief in the "effecnv* and efficient”: use of public money on health. j The Christchu.jh unit is not due to open until 1981-'

82. Planning has reached' final stages but Government approval to call tenders for the unit, to be built on the top of the west wing of Princess Margaret Hospital, is; not expected until late this, The North Canterbury Hos-i pit al Board is determined that the Christchurch unit be; set up, and is supported bvl ilocal patient pressure groups! and most cardiologists. The I same support has not, how-, ever, been forthcoming for: sending more South Island parents to the Dunedin unit. Rbth Labour and National! memfcrs of Parliament in The' have questioned! ’the running of the units. Staff shortages, experienced in Wellingto. earlier this year, would only be accentuated if a Christchurch unit opened, they Say. Another “expensive” ‘ health unit condemned by| Mr Hunt is the proposal to' .spend almost $4.2M on body; scanners. One of these cost-

ing 5840.000 is now in use in, Auckland. Others may be in-i stalled in W llingtbn, Dun-i edifi and Christchurch, ini That order, followed by, a. second unit for Auckland. ' The North Canterbury, Hospital Board is indignant’ that Dunedin is to receive its body scanner ahead of i Christchurch. Equally deterimined to have the scanner; I first is the senior neurologist !at the Otago Medical School,! Associate Professor Martini

Pollock. Professor Pollock told “The Press” last evening that j the installation date for the; Dunedin bodv scanner was 1 likely to be known late this, year. *. .’teJ A building is readv for the!

bodv scanner and staff from Dunedin are now being trained overseas on its use. No such steps have been taken by the North Canterbury' Hospital Board. However. the man responsible for assessing the merit of the Auckland body scanner, Dr Terry Peters, is a member of the board’s staff and he will soon go to the United States to work on body scanners there. So successful was Dr Pollock's campaign in Dunedin to “support the scanner” that when Mr Hunt criticised its cost and the need for its being there, a subsequent public outcry led Mr Hunt to “soften” his opposition. All Dunedin members of Parliament — one National (Mr R. F. Walls, Dunedin North) and the two Labour (Messrs W. A. Fraser, St Kilda, and Mr B. P. MacDonell. Dunedin Central) — support an early start to bodv scanner use in Dundin.

The North Canterbury Hospital Board has started advertising for its first neurosurgeon but it could be two vears before a neurosurgical service, with a body scanner. is available in ChristChurch. Predictably, the board will strongly oppose any delays but the machine’s cost might have to be weighed against that of flying patients to the scanner in Dunedin.

The body scanner, accepted as the most . advanced tool for detecting tnternal in- ; juries and tumours,- wquld 'still be available to South [lsland patients, all of.whoxn i could be accommodated /at Dunedin.