St John to carry out hospital transfers

By TONY GEE

The Northland District Health Board is confident it has an improved patient transfer and retrieval system in place to follow the withdrawal of 24-hour, seven-day surgery at Kaitaia Hospital on Friday.

St John has been contracted to provide advanced paramedic staff to support an upgraded hospital patient transfer service by ambulance or helicopter out of Kaitaia, starting on Saturday.

The hospital transfer service, available 24 hours a day throughout the year, will be based in Whangarei.

Board chief executive Karyn McPeake said the main benefit would be reduced response times for critical patients who did not need specialist medical help.

Kaitaia hospital staff will decide whether to transfer patients to Whangarei or another hospital by ambulance or helicopter.

Karyn McPeake said the board has drawn up a surgical programme for Kaitaia which includes local surgeons and visiting specialists.

A transition period which runs until the end of June will see two emergency nurses on call at the hospital to respond to after-hours trauma and resuscitation support, and to provide ward back up.

An extra nursing co-ordinator is to work at nights and during weekends and will co-ordinate patient transfers.

After-hours medical staff in Kaitaia are to be supported by on call Whangarei consultants, and during the transition, Kaitaia-based surgeons will stay on call after hours to offer advice and support.

Meanwhile, a second rescue and patient transfer helicopter will soon be seen in Northland skies.

The Northland Emergency Services Trust expects to have a second-hand Messerschmitt Bolkow 105S Machine flying from its Whangarei base in August or September.