Anger as renal unit under threat

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A recommendation for a renal unit in Wanganui may be dumped, according to a report this week and that has got at least one Whanganui District Health Board member fired up.

Media reports from Palmerston North said the recommended upgrades to renal services across the MidCentral and Whanganui (WDHB) health boards were on the verge of being dropped after a two-year feasibility investigation.

But Whanganui board member Ray Stevens said the decision amounted to a "done deal" before his board had even read the report or made its own decisions.

Staff in both organisations began their investigation after a study in 2010 by the Central Region Renal Network recommended a satellite dialysis unit in Wanganui. The network had looked at three options: increased home support; the recommended Wanganui satellite unit; and making no changes.

An average of 10 Wanganui people travel each day to Palmerston North Hospital for their dialysis treatment.

A MidCentral board committee was told this week that the working group did not accept the recommendations and instead said there should be no major changes to current services.

The report said the Wanganui satellite option was the most expensive, and while the home-based support model ranked the highest, it showed up limitations in relation to workforce, clinical impact, risk and financial impact.

Mr Stevens said the issue would be subject to some serious debate when the full WDHB met in a fortnight.

"We're always talking about regional services, but this is another example of 'regional' as long as it's in Palmerston North. If this is regional collaboration, then I'm not impressed."

He said reading about the report before the Whanganui board had had time to discuss it was "very disappointing".

"This has been under discussion for about two years now, but all we've had has been a few updates and little else. It's not as

Renal unit under threat

if the board has debated this fully." The business case might not stack up, "but what about the people's rights to a standard of care?".

He could understand cancer patients needing to travel to Palmerston North for such specialist care but extending and upgrading renal services in Wanganui was something that needed to be done.

"I'd be very disappointed if this isn't reversed. It looks like a done deal, so that means Wanganui simply notes it and moves on? I don't think so," he said.