Patients rally to keep Napier physio open

LINDY ANDREWS
They descended on Napier Health Centre in their droves - the walking wounded, young and old, some teetering on crutches and walking sticks - to wave the placards and to rail against the shock closure of the city's sole DHB-funded physiotherapy service.
The closure was unacceptable, Napier MP Chris Tremain told the 80-strong crowd yesterday afternoon.
Mr Tremain said if Hawke's Bay District Health Board could not come up with an acceptable solution, he would.
Today, he mailed letters to each of the city's private physiotherapy practices to gauge interest in a public/private partnership to get the service up and running again.
On Friday, Hawke's Bay District Health Board CEO Chris Clarke came in for stinging criticism from board members and local MPs when he announced the temporary closure of the state-of-the-art Wellesley Road facility.
The first board members knew of the decision was when they saw it in the media.
But Mr Clarke was not to blame, board chair Kevin Atkinson said today.
Both the board and CEO had been blindsided by news of the closure, which had been orchestrated by operational staff without appropriate consultation.
Staff, however, had been warned of the transfer of services to Hastings more than a week ago.
"I was unaware of the plan to temporarily close the facility ... I had a meeting with Chris on Monday who told me he first became aware of the situation last Thursday morning and at that stage he did not know who had made the decision," Mr Atkinson said.
"It's fair to say the board is concerned that the majority found out about the issue through the media.
"In the relationship the board has with management, under normal circumstances we would expect to be consulted in the same way as we were consulted over the closure of x-ray services at Christmas."
Despite a year-long national and international advertising campaign, the board had been unable to attract the physiotherapists it desperately needed to maintain services in Hastings and Napier.
At present, eight positions were vacant.
"We are looking at ways to reinstate the service as soon as possible," Mr Atkinson said.
The board and Mr Clarke had discussed a public/private partnership in June and an advertising campaign was underway to attract expressions of interest.