Steve and Carol Tait have lost a combined total of more than 55kg through the Sport Whanganui-led Fit for Surgery programme which will be no longer funded. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
Steve and Carol Tait have lost a combined total of more than 55kg through the Sport Whanganui-led Fit for Surgery programme which will be no longer funded. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora has ended its funding contract with the Sport Whanganui-led Fit for Surgery programme.
Fit for Surgery helped patients who needed to lose weight before knee and hip surgeries.
Health NZ’s group director of operations Katherine Fraser-Chapple said a referral pathway was now inplace where general practitioners and primary care referrers could refer patients directly to Health NZ.
Fraser-Chapple said Fit for Surgery service clients had been invited for an assessment at Whanganui Hospital to determine their next steps.
“If they require a referral to a service that has not already been made, such as Dietetics, this will be done,” she said.
“Those patients assessed as needing hip and knee replacement surgery and still needing to meet the BMI target will receive the support they need to do so,” Fraser-Chapple said.
“This will be tailored based on the person’s needs.”
However, Sport Whanganui chief executive Tania King was concerned for the existing patients.
“I don’t know what kind of care they are going to continue with them, I’m not sure,” King said.
Sport Whanganui active wellbeing manager Deb Byers (left) and chief executive Tania King are disappointed that Health NZ will no longer fund the Fit for Surgery programme.
King did not think patients would receive the same care available from the programme’s navigator, Ceinwen Pa’a, and would instead fall into the “confusing and inefficient” hospital system.
“I can’t speak on their behalf but my understanding is that they are just going to get pushed back into the hospital system and they are on their own really,” she said.
“I’m very disappointed that a solution wasn’t found by Te Whatu Ora, particularly in the funding side of things.
“I’m just disappointed for the patients themselves, as well, if they are lost into the hospital system again with no support.”
Fit for Surgery had referred 116 people for surgery.
Another 30 patients opted not to have surgery, saving the health system about $900,000.
“The success rate was huge and it has saved them thousands. We tried hard to keep that contract going but, at the end of the day, it’s up to Te Whatu Ora to make that a priority,” King said.
“I’m grateful that they gave us the opportunity to deliver the programme and the success of it speaks volumes for itself, so it’s a shame that it has been lost.”
