Cardiac unit ‘disappointment’

Press, 22 December 1986, Page 1

Cardiac unit ‘disappointment’

The Canterbury Hospital Board has greeted with "disappointment” the Lang Committee’s recommendation that it not be granted a cardiac Unit at this stage.

The board’s chairman, Mr Tom Grigg, said the people of Christchurch would be disappointed they were now “the largest centre in New Zealand without facilities to perform cardiac surgery.” However, the board would accept the committee’s suggestion that it investigate installing a limited by-pass unit from its own funds.

That would be "a major problem,” Mr Grigg said, since the board’s Govern-

ment funding had been successively cut for the last seven years. But “I wouldn’t say it was impossible.”

It was not fair that Canterbury had to find the funds for a limited unit when the costs of all the committee’s recommendations would be sought from the Government, he said.

Mr Grigg acknowledged that population pressure had led to the proposal of a new cardiac unit at Waikato Hospital, but said that Christchurch could provide the same caseload of 200 operations a year.

“There are at present more than 200 patients

being sent out of Canterbury to have their operations, • which would be enough to keep a unit,” he said.

About 65 to 70 per cent of surgery performed at Dunedin’s cardiac unit were from Christchurch. The board noted with concern that the increased number . of bypasses recommended by the Cole Committee had

not been met, and also that the committee had only had a few weeks to prepare its report.

“I feel it is a shame the Henry Lang Committee did not have more time to assess the situation but public pressure has made unreal demands for instant answers,” said Mr Grigg.

Further report, page 10