'It's very therapeutic for the people' - first full knee replacement surgery in Far North town
Erica Whyte and her surgeon Dr Rob Coup.
Photo:
Supplied / Health NZ
A woman who has had the first full knee replacement surgery in the Far North town of Kaitaia says being able to have the operation in her own community - supported by whanau - was a "therapeutic" and "holistic" experience.
Kaitaia Hospital has recently become the first rural hospital in Northland to have capacity for knee replacement surgery - years after hip joint replacement surgery first became available in Kaitaia in 2018.
Health New Zealand (HNZ) said the achievement is a major step forward in expanding advanced surgical care closer to home for Far North residents.
Surgeons travel to Kaitaia from Whangārei once every one to two weeks to do the operations.
Seventy-year-old Coopers Beach local Erica Whyte, who had her left knee operated on in Whangārei in 2019, said the surgery on her right knee last month was a much more comfortable experience.
"Being close to the hospital, being part of the big whanau community up in the far north, and going to a local hospital and having surgery there, it was totally different to driving down to Whangārei, anybody wanted to visit me was a four hour round-trip, Kaitaia was half an hour to come visit me," she said.
"Just the ability to be able to be in your own community, to have medical treatment, it's just holistic and it's very therapeutic for the people," she added.
Four weeks on from the operation, Whyte said she can now walk without aid and has a 100 percent bend in her knee.
Whyte said she was stoked for locals, particularly those living on the Aupōuri Peninsula - who would have needed to travel three hours on a bumpy road to get to Whangārei for treatment.
"When you're only a few days post surgery, it's a painful operation, it's not something you want to spend two or three hours sitting in a car on the way home, so for me to spend half an hour [being driven] home, was fantastic," she said.
The Kaitaia theatre team with Dr Coup.
Photo:
Supplied / Health NZ
Whyte, who has arthritis, said she first got onto the waiting list for knee replacement in 2018, and it was over a year's wait until she got her more severely affected left knee replaced in late 2019.
She said the pain in her right knee was manageable for some years, until it deteriorated in the middle of last year when she became reliant on a walking pole, painkillers and anti-inflammatories.
Whyte saw a doctor in July last year, but it was not until February this year that she got her first specialist appointment to discuss knee surgery options.
She said she was initially told that it would take 10-15 months for her to get surgery done.
But the opportunity to be selected as an ideal candidate for the first knee replacement surgery in Kaitaia brought her surgery forward by about a year.
Whyte said she was told by the doctor that she was suitable for the operation in Kaitaia, as she had no co-morbidities like diabetes, which meant her operation was lower risk for an operation at Kaitaia Hospital where there was no back up ICU.
HNZ general manager surgical services in Te Tai Tokerau Katy Wilkinson said the recruitment of three new orthopaedic surgeons to Northland in January has been key to making this complex procedure possible.
"Having these three new orthopaedic surgeons is just a wonderful asset for our team, it's growing the future of our care across Northland, particularly in Kaitaia," she said.
HNZ said the additional surgeons means an average of 160 more orthopaedic patients can be seen in a month, across a range of specialities, including diabetic foot clinics.
Wilkinson said the surgeons usually stay for a couple of days when they visit Kaitaia - doing operations as well as attending to outpatient appointments.
When asked how many knee surgeries can be done in Kaitaia in a year, Wilkinson said they're aiming to complete 12 to 24 operations yearly.
She said the number will depend on the availability of the surgeons, how urgent the patients' case is, and how long they've been waiting for.
Wilkinson said hundreds of people are on the wait list for knee surgery across Northland.
Kaitaia Hospital has two operating theatres, eight day-surgery beds and three recovery beds.
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