Assurance on child health services

PREGNANT and birthing women and families with sick children will still get the help they need at Wanganui Hospital. Assurances of this came from all sides yesterday and on Wednesday evening. Emergency Department doctors, the paediatric nursing team and anaesthetists at Wanganui Hospital would be providing cover for paediatric and maternity services when a locum paediatrician was unavailable today, Whanganui District Health Board chief Memo Musa said.
One locum paediatrician became unavailable for the roster between seven and 12-hour periods on 20, 21 and 22 September.
However there was full paediatric cover during the evening and night on those days, and there was Emergency Department doctor, paediatric nursing team and anaesthetist support at all times.
Families with children who were unwell should continue to go first to their general practitioner (GP), Mr Musa said. The GP would decide whether further assessment and treatment at hospital was needed.
"Those parents with special arrangements to go direct to the children's ward should continue to do so.
"Once a child gets to Wanganui Hospital, doctors will decide if that child should be assessed and monitored further in the children's ward or transferred to another hospital. This is usual procedure."
Mr Musa said maternity services had also been maintained and appropriate cover was in place.
Transfers out of Wanganui Hospital due to its shortage of specialists had not been as high as originally projected.
Since September 14, 241 children have been seen at the hospital. Six were transferred to Palmerston North Hospital, one to New Plymouth Hospital and three each to Wellington and Starship hospitals.
The six children transferred to Wellington and Starship would have been transferred regardless of the current situation, as more specialised services were required. Mr Musa said the board was providing all possible support to families whose children were transferred. Families were saying that support had worked well.
He added that the board's goal was to retain paediatric and maternity services at Wanganui Hospital for the long term, and various methods for this were being explored.
Management repeated these assurances to Wanganui midwives at a meeting yesterday, New Zealand College of Midwives chief executive Karen Guilliland said.
She was convinced that Wanganui women had no need to be scared.
"I'm pretty overwhelmed with the level of experience that they have access to here, and the level of commitment."
She said midwives mainly wanted to be assured that the board was committed to providing a long term hospital service, and they received those assurances.
She was also impressed by the skill level of Wanganui midwives, who were well capable of assessing and referring pregnant women if that was necessary. Staff who had stepped into the breech had worked well together.
"We're all feeling pretty positive that we can find solutions through this on a short term basis."
Meanwhile, paediatrician Tony de Sylva has returned from holiday and resumes work at the hospital on Monday. He said he was not sure how long he would be staying.