Wanganui residents wanting dietary advice now have access to a significantly larger and more comprehensive service.
The change has happened because the Whanganui District Health Board's (WDHB) two dieticians have joined forces with their MidCentral District Health Board colleagues to form a larger clinical team managed by catering contractors Spotless Services (NZ) Ltd.
Louise Allsopp, WDHB allied health manager, said while the two Wanganui dieticians will continue to serve the local district, their patients will have access to more treatment options and more dieticians.
"We've been impressed with Palmerston North Hospital's dietetic model for some time so looked to see how we could offer a similar service for our community.
"It made sense for our two dieticians to become part of a wider centralAlliance team employed by Spotless. Clearly the much larger MidCentral dietetic team has the luxury of being able to provide many more speciality services than smaller DHBs such as ours can," Mrs Allsopp said.
Meanwhile, the WDHB has agreed to fund a third dietician to support efforts to reduce obesity and diabetes.