Looking back on 21 years of Northland District Health Board

It's been one year since Whangārei Hospital's new cardiac catheter laboratory opened, meaning Northlanders no longer have to travel to Auckland for life-saving heart procedures. Photo / Supplied

Hospitals: they're a place of new life and death and everything in between.

And now the ruler of Northland's four hospitals, which for the last 21 years has provided an extensive range of acute and elective services, along with a significant network of community-based outpatient and mental health services, has itself died.

From today the Northland District Health Board, along with the country's 19 other DHBs, has been dissolved and replaced by Health NZ and the Māori Health Authority.

The two new entities will manage all health services, including hospital and specialist services, and primary and community care.

Today, the Northern Advocate looks back at the most notable moments of the NDHB, an organisation established by the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 which came into effect on January 1, 2001.

NDHB chief executive Dr Nick Chamberlain has already said he's proud of the significant building programme to redevelop parts of the Whangārei Hospital, including the mental health unit.

It's been one year since Whangārei Hospital's new cardiac catheter laboratory (cath lab) opened, meaning Northlanders no longer have to travel to Auckland for life-saving heart procedures.

Dr Chamberlain, who has been appointed Health NZ's national director of the new National Public Health Service, is also pleased with the Jim Carney Cancer Centre, which opened in 2014 after efforts by the community and the NDHB raised $5 million for its construction.

Then there was the redevelopment of the Bay of Islands Hospital and work at Te Kotuku, Whangārei Hospital's Maternity Unit.

Northlanders also now have a better chance of early detection of cancer as bowel screening services have been ramped up in the region.

NDHB chief executive Dr Nick Chamberlain is proud of the Jim Carney Cancer Centre, the redevelopment of the Bay of Islands Hospital and work at Te Kotuku. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Whangārei's new endoscopy suite opened in 2020 and has since received overwhelmingly positive feedback from staff and patients.

Throughout it all, NDHB has made consistent efforts to get people vaccinated against influenza and more recently Covid-19, youngsters vaccinated against measles, and to emphasise the benefits of quitting smoking.

In 2014, NDHB found a spoonful of sugar does not help the medicine go down, and banned all sugar-sweetened beverages from hospital cafeterias and vending machines.

But while there have been many successes in Northland's multi-faceted health system and in health outcomes, there have also been controversies.

Covid-19 provided plenty of challenges, with Chamberlain recently admitting NDHB's Achilles heel was Northland's poor vaccination rates, which are the worst in the country.

From the outset Northlanders were reluctant to get jabbed, prompting NDHB to dangle many carrots in front of them in the form of free entertainment, kai and coffee.

As the pressure to vaccinate grew – and the Prime Minister announced the move to the new traffic light system when each DHB had 90 per cent of its eligible population double dosed (Northland still sits at about 88 per cent double jabbed, the only region not to hit 90 per cent) – the enticements became more generous.

Holiday packages to the Cook Islands were suddenly up for grabs, along with New Zealand holiday packages and Northland weekend getaways worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Covid-19 provided plenty of challenges for NDHB. Photo / Tania Whyte

A couple of Apple iPhones and several Apple Watches were thrown in, along with an e-bike and lots of fuel cards, Christmas hams and Hunting & Fishing vouchers.

There were teething issues with getting vaccinated, however - NDHB having to apologise for its vaccination booking programme, which saw some people spend hours on the 0800 number and still not get an appointment.

There was also a case of incorrect reporting of Covid-positive numbers for a week or two, causing confusion among Northlanders.

Questions from the Northern Advocate found the differences stemmed from NDHB not receiving rapid antigen test (RAT) results, causing case numbers to differ from the Ministry of Health's tally, which also included PCR tests.

In addition to Covid-19 matters, NDHB has faced other criticisms, including a massive surgery backlog: as of May more than 3500 Northland patients were waiting for elective surgery, with 26 per cent of them needing an orthopaedic operation such as a hip replacement.

NDHB's response is that elective surgery had been reduced to manage the negative impact on staffing from Covid-19 and the high demand for inpatient beds.

NDHB was also criticised after the death of baby Jayzhan Singh Goraya, who was 4 months old when he died in 2017 after being released too soon from Kaitaia Hospital's emergency department.

In May a Coroner's report found the baby might still be alive if he had been admitted to hospital for further observation rather than discharged after a half-hour consultation.

A year later NDHB defended itself against claims it kept quiet about a potential super-strain of the meningococcal disease rather than warn the public.

Whangārei Hospital has had a raft of infrastructure woes, including roofs that leak in heavy rain and windows falling off the surgical wing. Photo / Tania Whyte

The grieving mum of 7-year-old Alexis Albert said the loss of her daughter might have been prevented if health authorities had alerted the community and warned people that meningococcal disease was possibly on the rise.

There have been strange moments - sewage was found to be leaking down the inside of walls in Whangārei Hospital's medical wing in 2021.

The unwelcome discharge was among a raft of infrastructure woes that included roofs that leak in heavy rain, windows falling off the surgical wing, and lifts that have broken down with bedridden patients inside.

And a prisoner's attempt to escape custody while at Whangārei Hospital fell flat earlier this year when she jumped from a third-storey window onto the roof of the hospital.

She was in the right place to be treated for the injuries she sustained after emergency services helped her down.