Chester Borrows: Let's pull together, not apart

The famous misquote from Yogi Berra: "It's de ja vu all over again" seems to befit the question of maternity services in Wanganui, with the proposal last week to combine the maternity services between Wanganui and Palmerston North Hospital.

That would mean that any birth with an element of risk to the safety of mother or baby would be scheduled for delivery in Palmerston North. A mother giving birth without complication in Palmerston North would be back in Wanganui Hospital in six hours and 24 hours after a "C section".

Women from Palmerston North requiring obstetric and gynaecological surgical procedures would have them in Wanganui.

I've been well and truly castigated for suggesting that it might be the best thing to provide certainty and safety for mothers and babies in Wanganui, bearing in mind that over the past 10 years these services have been uncertain. Women have had to travel to Palmerston North frequently, depending on how full the specialist roster was and in spite of all the planning for giving birth in Wanganui.

This proposal is all about providing safe and certain services for women and their families. It is not about saving money and is actually more expensive than the current set-up. It is only a proposal, but there are no obvious alternatives which deal with the fact that there are not enough babies being born in our hospital to keep a full roster of specialist doctors busy even if they were paid a premium for working here, and incentives are already available.

It strikes me as ironic that some board members and commentators appear to have been taken by surprise. These members have been on the board for consecutive terms during this decade of shaky maternity services. Five of them sit on the Wanganui District Council and so are presumably aware of all the issues around provision of service in Wanganui across portfolios but most noticeably in health.

They attend committee meetings where these issues are discussed and are best placed to know exactly where the risks lie. Although they may argue that their protestations have prevented previous withdrawal of service, we wouldn't be in this situation if solutions had been found.

With the wealth of talent and cleverness we have on the District Health Board, appointed and elected, surely any perfect solution would have been put forward and implemented within the last 10 years.

Given a worldwide shortage of doctors, Wanganui is in competition with other hospitals for their services. Any prospective immigrant to Wanganui would "Google" the city, the hospital, the council and the region. Interspersed among the vibrancy and colour of celebrations like the arts festivals, the vintage car rally, sports pageants, new businesses opening and world class events is doom and gloom, petty arguments and dirty washing being aired in public. I am sure that many aspiring new citizens don't give us a second look. We have to get them here to see the place.

Three points are obvious: (1) the best result for Wanganui is a fully staffed maternity unit based in town; (2) if doing this were as easy as finding more money it would have been done because the board, the managers and the staff are clever enough to make it happen; (3) the reason why people are not attracted to work in Wanganui has more to do with perception than reality, and we are responsible for that.

We need to be famous for our innovation not our arguments.