Cardiac surgery for Chch

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 7

Cardiac surgery for Chch

The need for a cardiac surgical unit in Christchurch was reiterated by Canterbury Hospital Board members yesterday. In a report to the board, the board’s medical superintendent-in-chief, Dr Ross Fairgray, outlined some of the arguments in support of a Christchurch unit. The report, presented to the board’s health services committee yesterday, said that cardiac surgery should be provided in Canterbury, subject to the provision of appropriate finance. Canterbury had the

highest number of patients awaiting cardiac surgery in New Zealand. Forty-eight of the 112 awaiting surgery had waited more than a year, said Dr Fairgray. It was also significant that Canterbury had the largest number of patients opting for private cardiac surgery. Statistics showed that in comparison with other centres Canterbury patients were disadvantaged. Since 1975 about 300 patients each year had been referred from Christchurch for cardiac surgery, of whom 80 per

cent were accepted. That number more than justified the development of a cardiac unit, based on the Health .Department’s minimum guidelines of 120. Dr Fairgray said it would cost $5 million to set up a unit in Christchurch comprising two operating theatres and an intensive-care unit with eight beds. It had been considered that such a unit could be set up at The . Princess Margaret Hospital. The unit would provide for open-heart surgery, closed-heart and vascular surgery, back-up for angioplasty, and facilities

for respiratory resuscitation. It would cost about $5 million each year to maintain. Dr Fairgray repeated the concerns of board members that established units were considering heart transplant surgery before adequate facilities for open cardiac surgery were available. The report will form the basis of a more extensive submission to be presented to the Minister of Health’s Hospitals Advisory Council Committee, now reviewing the state of cardiac surgery in New Zealand.