The only neurosurgeon working for the Southern District Health board area yesterday said patients are at risk because there aren't enough neurosurgeons and he's calling on the government to help.
Dr Ahmad Taha said the lack of qualified physicians available to support him means he has to be on call to perform lifesaving surgery anytime day or night.
"It's a big workload but there's no other choice. Either I will do my job or people will lose lives or they'll lose body functions," he said.
Southern DHB chief executive Chris Fleming said Dr Taha working 24/7 wasn't sustainable nor safe for him or the patient.
The DHB is trying to create a model to help patients get to Christchurch in case a neurosurgeon was not on call.
Mr Fleming agreed it was a challenge to hire neurosurgeons and said one patient had died.
"Over the time period when we haven't had a neurosurgeon on call in Southern, there has been one patient that was transferred to Christchurch that did pass away.
"However, the review that's underway at the moment has informed me to date that that was not a consequence of the transfer. I need to wait for the outcome of that review to be certain."
He said one of the challenges was finding a person with the right mix of vocational skills and the ability to reach vocational registration with the college.
"We've been very active in attempting to recruit and retain neurosurgeons. We have had challenges.
"It is a unique situation in Southern where we need a mix of people with good neurosurgical skills and they also need to have an academic interest. Our model is based on three neurosurgeons with two of them having an academic appointment with the university."
An offer has been made for a neurosurgeon that will start in mid-2020 but that depends on the vocational registration being reached.
