Maternity services to stay local

The people said "no" and the Whanganui District Health Board listened.

Yesterday, in a vote that was unanimous, the board decided that it would be maintaining 24-hour, seven-day-a-week maternity services.

That key decision is at the heart of a recommendation the board nailed down after about two hours of discussion.

And the decision was reached without the animosity and harsh words that had coloured some previous debates about the planned regional women's health service between Whanganui and MidCentral DHBs.

The proposal, designed to cover a possible shortfall in specialist obstetrician and gynaecology (O & G) cover at Wanganui Hospital, raised hackles in the Wanganui community. That depth of feeling was starkly displayed when the proposal went out for public consultation.

The board was looking at three options for the regional service.

The first option - and most contentious - would have seen up to half of Wanganui mothers having to travel to Palmerston North to give birth.

When the board voted to drop that option yesterday, the packed public gallery broke into spontaneous applause. It set the tone for the rest of the meeting with the board accepting the second option, albeit with some attachments.

This option would still work under an over-arching regional service but would ensure that a 24/7 maternity service, with vital O & G coverage, would remain in the city.

The board members agreed more work would need to be done with the preferred option and management would start work on that now. It is likely a draft will be back with the board in August.

Michael Laws said his main concern with the proposal was that Palmerston North appeared to the focus if any service failed.

Mr Laws suggested that there must be a system in place which meant specialists from Palmerston North travel to Wanganui "so it's about transferring staff rather than women".

And he said the board needed to be "very clear" how the service would look.

"There's a huge test on our management on what the service will look like ... It has to work for regional co-operation to succeed. This will be the test," he said.

MidCentral board chairman Phil Sunderland, who also sits on the WDHB, said any regional service needed to "cut both ways" and any new plan must cover that off.

Mr Sunderland said both boards needed to agree that secondary health services are maintained at both hospitals without favouring one over the other.

After the meeting Kate Joblin, WDHB board chairperson, said this was a partnership of equals "and I'm sure we'll achieve that".

Mrs Joblin said the service would serve both hospitals.

"A regional service has got to underpin this but we don't have to deal with the issues in isolation, or have clinicians working in isolation," she said.

She was pleased to see the partnership that had developed as a result of this process in the past few months.

"And what we talked about today underlines that partnership going on into the future, which is important."