Cardiac unit study to reopen

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 1

Cardiac unit study to reopen

A fresh look at the case: for a cardiac unit in Christchurch will be taken by the Canterbury Hospital Board. The board decided at a meeting yesterday to set up a sub-committee to study the need for a cardiac unit in the city. “We owe it to the people of Canterbury to make a positive decision on this matter,” said a board member, Mr Tom McGuigan. The board should start discussions about a unit without waiting for the publication of the latest cardiac register, the results of which were fairly well known anyway, he said. There were 195 Canterbury people on the waiting lists for cardiac surgery — about 25 per cent of the New Zealand total. Of these people more than half had been waiting for more than two years. Mr McGuigan said he was concerned that another $1.6 million had been allocated to the Otago Hospital Board during the next five years to maintain its cardiac unit. About 90 per cent of Christchurch cardiac

patients are sent to the Dunedin unit. Otago patients account for only 13 per cent of its workload, it is believed. “I doubt whether the allocation of $1.6 million will solve the problems of cardiac surgery in the South Island,” said Mr McGuigan. The allocation was a “political handout” to maintain the unit in Dunedin, he said.

Recent talk of setting up a private cardiac unit in Christchurch was “nonsensical” as such a unit would need the backing of staff from public hospitals in Canterbury.

Professor Don BeaVen said that the waiting list was “excessively long” in New Zealand. He said that the waiting period in Australia was, at most, 16 weeks. There were at least

15 units in Australia, he said. The board’s chairman, Mr Tom Grigg, said that, per capita, New Zealand had the same number of units as Australia. Country G.P.s Difficulties that general practitioners in the country faced in getting locums could drive them into town practices, said Mrs L. C. Gardiner. It was virtually impossible for a solo practitioner in the country to obtain a locum, she said. “We are dependent on G.P.s for the continuation of our country hospitals.” A certain amount of experience in country practice was necessary for medical students, she said. Professor Beavan said the family medical training programme could contribute to country practices and provide locums. The board’s medical superintendent-in-chief, Dr Ross Fairgray, said that the programme had been asked by the board for three consecutive years to supply locums, and had not complied.