Joint-replacement surgery to resume

By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE

Joint-replacement surgery will resume at Tauranga Hospital in a week, despite no cause being found for higher than normal rates of infection.

The hospital's manager, Alan Wilson, said a rise in post-operative infections since January had "flashed a warning light".

Surgeons stopped implanting hips and knees several weeks ago after infection rates shot up to five times the nationally accepted level of 1 per cent. When a thorough internal investigation failed to pinpoint the source, outside expertise was called in to make sure nothing had been overlooked.

"We may just have to accept that there has been a cluster of increased infections for no single discernable reason," said Mr Wilson.

"The same phenomenon has happened before at other hospitals."

He said all the obvious possibilities had been checked thoroughly, including bacterial culturing of theatres, air-conditioning, equipment and operating processes - "all to no avail".

Patient safety was the priority, and the reason artificial joint surgery had been put on hold.

Infection-control experts, clinicians and management had all agreed to resume elective joint-replacement procedures in about a week without compromising patient safety in any respects, Mr Wilson said.

Operations would be increased from six to eight a week to clear the backlog.