The current Buller Health facility - formerly Buller Hospital - where services are currently reduced. Photo: Brendon McMahon/Greymouth Star
Allegations emergency medical cover at Buller Health is at breaking point has been denied by Health NZ West Coast, which says the level of urgent medical support in Westport has never been higher.
West Coast general manager Philip Wheble said there was no planned reduction in cover for Westport and the planned new facility, replacing the ageing Buller Hospital, should make services even more accessible.
However, Buller Health had never had an "emergency doctor", Wheble said. It did have specialist trained rural hospital medical doctors (RHM), who worked in conjunction with Te Nikau Hospital in Greymouth.
There had always been one to two RHM specialists in Westport, he said.
"There's never been more than that. We've got one that's based up in Westport with others from Greymouth that go up," Wheble said.
"We continue to recruit."
Overall, the current level of medical cover on the West Coast was "robust", he said.
The RHM doctors were part of a team approach providing a higher level of service than previously by using skills across complementary areas.
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The Westport facility currently had 4.73 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors overall, and 1.93 FTE nurse practitioners who also provided services to Karamea, Ngakawau and Reefton. They also provided cover for midweek after hours, weekends and public holiday services.
"Our rural generalist model supports a robust primary care service in both Westport and Greymouth, allowing for flexible service provision," Wheble said.
Westport had been staffed by a combination of GPs and historically two RHM specialists, he said.
By far, the majority of Westport service demand was at a GP level, he said.
Westport currently had one RHM with support from Greymouth doctors.
"The key thing here is that the team is able to provide the care that is needed in the community. Currently they work together to support the needs of the community.
"There's actually more staff able to provide that medical level of care up in Westport at this point in time as opposed to two years ago.
"[The team approach] has given us the ability to have a more robust medical workforce across the Coast."
An aerial view of the new $12m-plus Buller Health rebuild, to be known as Te Rau Kawakawa. Photo: Supplied / West Coast District Health Board
Health NZ West Coast chief medical officer Graeme Roper said the region was also affected by the national workforce shortage.
"Our current situation with the Buller-inpatient closure is a temporary measure and it's about having a safe service for the community with the staff we have available," Dr Roper said.
Wheble said the temporary closure at Buller Health was to ease winter and Covid-19 pressure across the system.
That temporary reduction was not reflective of how the new facility would operate, with all current services in Westport to continue.
Registered nurses, nurse practitioners and doctors provided urgent patient stabilisation and observation services.
"On-call PRIME trained clinical staff are rostered to provide after-hours clinical support and respond to medical emergencies."
The current "temporary" restriction of hours, with Foote Ward closed from 10pm to 7am, was related to nursing leave.
"We are on track to reinstate Buller Health's urgent patient stabilisation and observation services to a 24/7 service in early October."
In the meantime, services were available between 7am and 11pm daily, with the doors closing at 10pm.
Health NZ worked closely with St John to ensure emergency medical care 24/7.
Its Prime trained clinicians were often the first responders at a medical emergency especially in towns with a health base.
"While Buller Health's Foote Ward is temporarily closed overnight, all acute care will be managed in the same way as rural services provided by St John who will be supported by a Prime-trained clinician."
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
