New Zealand Defence Force's surgical team sets up at Whanganui Hospital

Surgeons, trauma specialists, anaesthetists and nurses took part. Photo / Supplied

A group of medical professionals called Whanganui home for a weekend of training and team building.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) light surgical team completed surgeries at the city's hospital in collaboration with Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand Whanganui.

Participants included surgeons, trauma specialists, anaesthetists and nurses.

Te Whatu Ora interim district director Andrew McKinnon said the opportunity was "exciting for all involved", including the Whanganui people who benefited from it.

"We are looking forward to many more conversations around this," McKinnon said.

The purpose of the weekend was to allow the NZDF team to operate together in a hospital environment, which was a rarity as they usually deployed in small teams.

Patients operated on were selected from Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand Whanganui's
waiting list and consented to have the surgeries performed by the NZDF team.

Follow-up care will be completed by Whanganui Hospital's surgical team, who worked with NZDF throughout the weekend.

All NZDF staff were orientated to Whanganui Hospital, vetted, credential checked and tested for Covid-19 and MRSA as per hospital protocol.

The Defence Force said in a statement the planned NZDF Light Surgical Team was a small team of about 10 healthcare specialists that provided the capability of initial surgical resuscitation and stabilisation of deployed NZDF casualties.

It provided damage control surgery prior to patient evacuation.

"NZDF personnel took part in a specialist team-building activity at Whanganui Hospital, drawing together Regular Force and Reserve Force clinical specialists from NZDF Health," the statement said.

This story has been updated to include comment from the Defence Force which was received after publication time.