KEY POINTS:
A locum doctor discharged a patient from Blenheim's Wairau Hospital after an operation and sent him to a motel because of a lack of beds.
The doctor was one of many who expressed serious concerns about the planned hospital redevelopment at public meetings yesterday.
Members of the public and hospital staff questioned bed numbers, especially in the maternity ward, and looming job cuts, the Marlborough Express reported.
Auckland-based locum general surgeon Lawrence Smith, who has worked at Wairau Hospital twice in the past six months, said that last week the hospital and the hospice had no spare beds leading to the cancellation of two operations.
He said he had to discharge a Kaikoura man, who should have been kept overnight, to a motel because beds were needed for acute patients.
Mr Smith said the plan to cut six beds from the medical ward but have more in the surgical ward was ridiculous, because the wards were completely different.
"It's foolish to skimp on beds. Very foolish," Mr Smith said.
Project chief operating officer Keith Rusholme said "swing beds", which allowed beds from one department to be used in another if needed, would be implemented to alleviate the problem.
Mr Rusholme said the number of planned beds was based on carefully analysed statistics and having beds which would be unused 90 per cent of the time was not practical.
The swing bed method was used across New Zealand, he said.
A business case for the hospital design two years ago called for a saving of 27 full time equivalent (FTE) positions. This was revised to 11 when the board met nursing and support staff 10 days ago.
However, board chief executive John Peters said yesterday he did not believe anyone would lose their jobs.
- NZPA
