Surgeon feels he was 'thrown away'

A permanent, general surgeon job is now being advertised.

A former surgeon at Wairarapa Hospital says people will be waiting longer for bowel surgeries after he was "thrown away".

Bertrand Jauffret, a locum specialising in keyhole bowel surgery, worked for Wairarapa and Hutt Hospital for three and a half years.

A week before his contract ended, he was told by email that he was not needed and his contract would not be renewed.

"Management said it was not necessary to have a surgeon like me in Masterton. They asked me not to come back." Dr Jauffret said there was no reason given as to why his contract wasn't renewed.

"That was it," he said. "I invested a lot of my time and sweat to be thrown away."

He said he was not angry but concerned about people in Wairarapa.

"There are major problems getting access to surgery.

"If you start downscaling like they have, it's not going to look good in a few months."

His waiting list was "huge" and he said the DHB had struggled to make time for his surgeries. He said people would be left waiting longer.

A permanent, general surgeon job is now being advertised, said Bob Francis, Wairarapa District Health Board chairman, at a public meeting discussing the 3DHB shared services programme between the region's three DHBs.

"The cost of the locums can be as much as twice the cost of a permanent," he said.

It was unknown whether the new surgeon would have Dr Jauffret's skillset, said Mr Francis and Graham Dyer, chief executive of Wairarapa DHB.

They refused to comment on the matters of Dr Jauffret's employment but said the level of cover for patients needing bowel surgery wouldn't change.

"We are committed to provide the appropriate level of service," said Mr Dyer.

Dr Jauffret was the only surgeon specialising in keyhole bowel surgery at Wairarapa Hospital.

"I did a lot of bowel cancer surgery in Masterton, keyhole surgery," Dr Jauffret said.

He said the nature of his contract meant the hospital had no obligation to renew it, but for months he had raised concerns when the 3DHB programme would be started. "They could have let me know [earlier]."

He said he is now going to work in Hawkes Bay. "I was planning to stay here [in Masterton]. I won't come back because I don't want that to happen to me again."

Former patients questioned the decision by the DHB not to renew his contract.

"Why are we losing him?" said Corrinne Oliver, who met the surgeon last year when she was sick with diverticulitis, a digestive disease that causes painful pouches in the bowel wall.

"He is an excellent surgeon."

Bruce Bithell, who had complicated surgery done on his stomach for a hernia was also disappointed to hear the doctor would be going.