Short-term cover in place for retired neurologist

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A neurology service is continuing in Tairawhiti after the retirement of a visiting specialist.

Hauora Tairahiti DHB staff said there was a risk the service would not run short term following the retirement of Wellington-based neurologist Dr Stuart Mossman (from today).

But Hauora Tairawhiti chief executive Jim Green said that was no longer the case as they had arranged for Waikato-based neurologist Dr Paul Timmings to cover the service.

Mr Green said Hauora Tairawhiti was looking at future options to provide the service in conjunction with other DHBs.

“This presents a good opportunity with ways to improve the service locally,” he said.

Hauora Tairawhiti was in discussion with Lakes and Hawke's Bay DHBs about a partnership arrangement that could be in place within about 12 months, he said,

This partnership could look like a joint service across the regions with appointments to enable the level of service required.

The clinicians would work as a team to provide good service coverage and collegial support.

Mr Green said Dr Mossman's retirement was consistent with a number of factors, including the ageing health workforce.

“More locally-trained specialists are required and training programmes to include experience in communities such as Tairawhiti.

“We are developing these but at this stage for more general specialities, for example, surgery, medicine, psychiatry, the emergency department.

“Sub-specialty training is intense and requires long periods of commitment, with experience needed in many centres and sometimes overseas.”

The Covid-19 pandemic had also impacted the DHB's ability to recruit people from overseas.

“There are more aspects to all of this and our chief medical officer Dr Anil Nair is working on this for us going forward to augment what we have done and continue to do.”

According to medical services reports that came before the Hiwa i Te Rangi committee, as of August 15, two days before the country went into Level 4 lockdown, 26 people were waiting for their first appointment with a neurologist in Gisborne. Of those, 14 had been waiting longer than four months.

No patients had been waiting longer than four months to see a neurologist in January and February this year but that number climbed to 14 by mid-March after the visiting neurologist went on leave for a month. Sixteen people had been waiting longer than four months in April but by May there was only one person on that list.

The waitlist increased again by August.