Kaitaia hospital crisis hits 5-year-old Whangarei boy

By BRIDGET CARTER

The decision to send two specialist anaesthetists from Whangarei to Kaitaia Hospital to relieve a two-day staff shortage has now left Whangarei Hospital short.

As a result, a 5-year-old's urology operation at Whangarei had to be cancelled today.

Urological surgeon Tony Nixon said the child had waited over a year for the surgery and his patient was very upset it could not go ahead.

It had been rescheduled for the beginning of August.

The decision to send Whangarei Hospital's specialist anaesthetist to Kaitaia was made by the Northland District Health Board's general manager early yesterday.

It followed an urgent plea on Friday for specialist anaesthetists to work as locums at Kaitaia Hospital for more than $10,000 a week, which was unsuccessful.

Spokesman for the Northland District Health Board, Luke Worth, said the specialists from Whangarei worked at Kaitaia Hospital yesterday and today.

There were 11 full time anaesthetist specialists working at Whangarei Hospital and one locum.

Another full-time anaesthetist was expected to start work in Whangarei during December.

From tomorrow five specialist anaesthetist locums had been organised to fill staffing shortages at Kaitaia Hospital for the next two weeks.

After that, other staffing gaps needed to be filled. Mr Worth said people had phoned to offer their services, but many did not fit the criteria.

Last week, a decision was made to restore 24-hour surgical services at Kaitaia Hospital for at least three months.

Acute surgery after 5pm at Kaitaia Hospital and at weekends was stopped in May when the board and Northland Health cited a shortage of anaesthetists.

During the past year, because of the difficulties recruiting and retaining staff, 53 locums have worked at Kaitaia Hospital