WAM or ED? It's your choice

PEOPLE WILL still be able to choose where to take their health problems when Whanganui Accident and Medical Clinic begins working from Wanganui Hospital next week.
When hospital staff petitioned against the move last year, a proposal to direct people first to the clinic was their main concern.
The private non-profit clinic, owned by Whanganui Regional Primary Health Organisation, has its official opening today and begins seeing patients at the hospital on Monday.
Its move to the hospital hit the news in November last year, amid criticism that patients would have to pay for what was a free service at the hospital's Emergency Department (ED) and that clinic staff would be less skilled at making quick assessments of patients.
Health Minister Annette King took an interest in the controversy.
Whanganui District Health Board hopes the clinic will initially care for 5000 to 8000 of the 21,000 people who present themselves at Wanganui Hospital's ED every year ? those people with more minor ailments suitable for treatment by GPs.
ED and Whanganui Accident and Medical Clinic (WAM) are to operate from the same rooms by 2008. By then WAM is expected to care for 10,000 of those now presenting at ED. After discussion it was decided that people would still have a choice about where to present themselves. Those presenting with minor ailments at ED between 8am and 9pm, when WAM is open, could be asked to go to the clinic instead. This has been happening since WAM was set up, but the distance will be shorter from Monday.
Those referred by GPs and brought in by ambulance would go to ED.
The existence of WAM had already led to a 10 percent drop in people with minor ailments presenting at ED, board papers said.
In order to keep this trend happening, people would be "actively encouraged" to go to the right place, through an education process.
Board chief Memo Musa said ED staff were approaching the move with some trepidation. Job losses were expected, but staff reduction would be done through normal turnover or by redeployment within the hospital.
A key factor for the success of the move would be "managing" people's reactions to paying for services previously provided free, the papers said.
At Friday's meeting board member Diana Valentine said people presenting themselves at Taihape's health centre with minor ailments had to pay. It wouldn't be fair if people in the same situation in Wanganui got free treatment when they showed up at ED after hours.
"In Taihape our after-hours services are provided by our hospital, and we have been forced to charge... partly on the grounds that we understood that would be happening in Wanganui. If it isn't, I will be seeking a review," she said.
After the shift WAM would keep a GP and practice nurse service in its rooms in Wicksteed St. People not registered with a Wanganui GP, or visiting the city, would go to the hospital site for care.
Mr Musa said the move would improve services for patients by bridging the gap between community and hospital care and providing a "one-stop shop" with free access to hospital laboratory and X-ray services. Other advantages could be shorter waiting times and freeing up ED to deal with genuine emergencies.
A similar set-up at Kenepuru Hospital, Porirua, was working well, he said.