"I AM placing the relocation on hold."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Hunter New England Health (HNE Health) chief executive officer Michael DiRienzo yesterday hit pause on the plan to close the Nita Reed Community Dialysis Centre in Taree and relocate dialysis chairs to Forster Private Hospital in 2015.
Mr DiRienzo says HNE Health "will finalise plans and ensure that our staff, patients, visitors and the community more broadly, is kept up to date" after discussions with stakeholders in meetings "over the coming weeks."
"I'm taking the feedback from the community seriously and focusing our immediate efforts on meeting with key stakeholders about plans for the service and the structure. While we undertake this important work, I am placing the relocation on hold," Mr DiRienzo said.
Greater Taree City Council mayor Paul Hogan is pleased but says "a hold is not stop on the decision and I look forward to gathering my facts and figures and being involved in the process of discussing the proposal."
One of the documents that mayor Hogan will use to illustrate the case for keeping the Nita Reed Community Dialysis Centre open and the dialysis chairs in the Manning Valley will be the HNE Health Lower Mid North Coast Clinical Services Plan 2013-2017. The clinical services plan is the go-to document in the Manning Valley if you seek to understand the current medical service needs. It was released in July 2013 and identifies initiatives to guide service development and delivery in the Hunter New England Health Lower Health District over the next five years.
It paints an alarming picture of inpatient activity for Manning Hospital for the chronic condition of renal disease and reveals that by 2022 inpatient activity for Manning Hospital will be up by "1433 separations", and that projected activity for renal dialysis in the Lower Mid North Coast area "will have the highest increase to 2021 of 89.5 per cent, and the highest average annual increase of six per cent for renal dialysis, which are both higher than for the rest of NSW."
In recent weeks it has been revealed in The Manning River Times that discussions about the restructure of renal dialysis services did not occur with HNE Health and all key stakeholders, including patients of the Nita Reed Community Dialysis Centre, Manning Hospital Medical Staff Council and Greater Taree City Council mayor, Paul Hogan.
Last week Dr David Keegan spoke to the experience of the Manning Hospital Medical Staff Council in relation to the decision, revealing that HNE Health director of acute services, Todd McEwan informed doctors at a meeting on September 4 that "it was basically fait accompli about Nita Reed".
The issue of consultation and process has sat front and centre in the debate, and it was yesterday acknowledged by Mr DiRienzo.
"When looking at any changes to services, communicating with our staff, patients and visitors is a priority and we endeavoured to do so in this case. However, I recognise that there is more work to be done."
An issue that will be raised with HNE Health is the assertion of Dr Keegan that the proposal to relocate dialysis chairs to Forster Private Hospital "is such that you've only got just enough to satisfy the present demand for renal dialysis".
"The demographic is changing with our ageing population, diabetes, obesity, and vascular disease that predisposes people to renal failure," Dr Keegan explained.
"There is no in-built redundancy or flexibility. You need one or two chairs surplus to do that, and at the moment there will not be any surplus chairs."
Dr Keegan also points to our indigenous population as another reason why renal dialysis chairs should be retained in Taree.
"We have a very high indigenous population and the rate of renal disease in the indigenous community is high," Dr Keegan said. "It is growing and they keep talking about the epidemic of renal failure".
The clinical services plan identifies the need for additional support for Aboriginal people and states that "a review of hospital activity data for Aboriginal people shows that renal dialysis is the main reason for admission, followed by maternity and psychiatry" and that "Aboriginal people have a far higher prevalence of certain diseases such as renal disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke, compared with non-Aboriginal people."