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NZ Herald
29-04-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Former health chief criticises ICU bed reduction at new Dunedin Hospital
Health Minister Simeon Brown said the total number of ICU beds had not changed and the Government was committed to getting a new Dunedin Hospital built. After months of uncertainty and delays, it was welcome news when Brown confirmed the fate of the new Dunedin Hospital, albeit a scaled-back version, in January. Now, months later, he has been facing flak for not revealing the new build would not have as many ICU beds when doors open. The former head of Dunedin Hospital's emergency department, Dr John Chambers, said the public was in the dark about the ICU beds, which were critical to how a modern hospital functions. Fewer beds could impact patients, he said. 'There's nothing worse for a patient than to have their complex surgery cancelled because of a lack of intensive care beds for post operative care, and similarly in the emergency department, there's nothing worse having to keep a very ill patient in the emergency department for prolonged periods of time because there's no bed in intensive care,' Chambers said. He was also a former Southern District Health Board member and said the current hospital had struggled with its intensive care unit, which had partly prompted the call for a new build. Chambers said it had taken years to refit the current unit, causing many surgery delays or cancellations, so it was not enough to simply leave space for more beds. 'What you don't want to do is open a hospital and then be depending on it failing to open up more beds,' he said. 'This whole business of using a shell-type model to plan for the future means that at any point in the future, the argument will have to be made that we need more intensive care beds because we're not coping.' In January, Health New Zealand advised the then-Health Minister Dr Shane Reti about proposed new bed modelling that would reduce ICU bed numbers while increasing the number of other bed types, particularly medical surgical or ambulatory beds. Officials found the proposal met forecast demand on opening and followed a consistent nationwide approach to demand modelling. But Chambers wants to see the original plan go ahead. 'If anything, you should plan in some spare capacity to cope with surges, to cope with unexpected increases in population,' he said. 'To try and cut it so fine is just taking too much chances with the healthcare of a population.' Changes guided by more up-to-date modelling, says Health NZ Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the entire lower South Island depended on the hospital so it needed to be built as promised. 'The National Party lied to New Zealanders about the Dunedin Hospital rebuild before the election when they said they were going to do the full-scale Dunedin Hospital rebuild. They have backtracked on that several times,' Hipkins said. 'This is just the latest broken promise when it comes to Dunedin Hospital.' In response, Brown said the Labour Party had failed to deliver on the new Dunedin Hospital while in office and now the Government was getting on with it. 'The new Dunedin Hospital will future-proof the provision of timely, quality healthcare for the people of Dunedin and the surrounding Otago and Southland regions,' he said. The total number of ICU and high dependency unit beds had not changed from the detailed business case, Brown said. Health New Zealand head of infrastructure delivery Blake Lepper said the changes to bed numbers and types had been guided by more up-to-date national modelling and a recent assessment on expected demand. The current proposal had the same number of beds overall and part of the shell space would be used as an interim workspace, he said. 'The additional spaces earmarked for future fit out have been informed by the updated modelling and current thinking about models of care,' Lepper said. 'We will continue to work with our staff, our regional colleagues, and our wider stakeholders in planning how best to provide the health services our community needs now and into the future.' Work on the new Dunedin Hospital's inpatient building was expected to resume from mid-year.
RNZ News
29-04-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Cuts to ICU beds at new Dunedin Hospital taking chances - former health chief Dr John Chambers
The Dunedin Hospital build site in June 2024. Photo: RNZ/Tess Brunton A former health chief says cutting the number of available intensive care beds planned for the new Dunedin Hospital is taking chances with the region's health. Thirty intensive care unit beds were originally planned, with capacity for a further 10 beds. But Health New Zealand has cut the number of ICU beds to 20 on opening, with room to increase to 40 beds in the future. Health Minister Simeon Brown said the total number of ICU beds had not changed and the government was committed to getting a new Dunedin Hospital built. After months of uncertainty and delays, it was welcome news when Simeon Brown confirmed the fate of the new Dunedin Hospital, albeit a scaled back version, in January. Now months later, he has been facing flak for not revealing the new build would not have as many intensive care unit beds when doors open. The former head of Dunedin Hospital's emergency department, Dr John Chambers, said the public was in the dark about the ICU beds, which were critical to how a modern hospital functions. Fewer beds could impact patients, he said. "There's nothing worse for a patient than to have their complex surgery cancelled because of a lack of intensive care beds for post operative care, and similarly in the emergency department, there's nothing worse having to keep a very ill patient in the emergency department for prolonged periods of time because there's no bed in intensive care," Chambers said. He was also a former Southern District Health Board member, and said the current hospital had struggled with its intensive care unit, which had partly prompted the call for a new build. Chambers said it had taken years to refit the current unit, causing many surgery delays or cancellations so it was not enough to simply leave space for more beds. "What you don't want to do is open a hospital and then be depending on it failing to open up more beds," he said. "This whole business of using a shell-type model to plan for the future means that in any point in the future, the argument will have to be made that we need more intensive care beds because we're not coping." In January, Health New Zealand advised the then-health minister, Dr Shane Reti, about proposed new bed modelling that would reduce ICU bed numbers while increasing the number of other bed types, particularly medical surgical or ambulatory beds. Officials found the proposal met forecast demand on opening and followed a consistent nationwide approach to demand modelling. But Dr Chambers wants to see the original plan go ahead. "If anything, you should plan in some spare capacity to cope with surges, to cope with unexpected increases in population," he said. "To try and cut it so fine is just taking too much chances with the healthcare of a population." Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the entire lower South Island depended on the hospital so it needed to be built as promised. "The National Party lied to New Zealanders about the Dunedin Hospital rebuild before the election when they said they were going to do the full scale Dunedin Hospital rebuild. They have backtracked on that several times," Hipkins said. "This is just the latest broken promise when it comes to Dunedin Hospital." In response, Health Minister Simeon Brown said the Labour Party had failed to deliver on the new Dunedin Hospital while in office, and now the government was getting on with it. "The new Dunedin Hospital will future-proof the provision of timely, quality healthcare for the people of Dunedin and the surrounding Otago and Southland regions," he said. The total number of intensive care unit and high dependency unit beds had not changed from the detailed business case, Brown said. Health New Zealand head of infrastructure delivery Blake Lepper said the changes to bed numbers and types had been guided by more up-to-date national modelling and a recent assessment on expected demand. The current proposal had the same number of beds overall and part of the shell space would be used as an interim workspace, he said. "The additional spaces earmarked for future fit out have been informed by the updated modelling and current thinking about models of care," Lepper said. "We will continue to work with our staff, our regional colleagues, and our wider stakeholders in planning how best to provide the health services our community needs now and into the future." Work on the new Dunedin Hospital's inpatient building was expected to resume from mid-year. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
24-04-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Startup hopes to improve oral care
Her lightbulb moment came literally at an electrifying event. Invercargill-based oral health therapist Georgina Welsh was attending Electrify Aotearoa in Christchurch, an event for women founders, startup leaders, supporters and investors to fuel the growth of women-led high-growth ventures in New Zealand. While there, she was struck with an idea to create something like MoleMap, the comprehensive skin and mole check service, but for teeth, and she was spurred into action to establish Map My Mouth. Her aim was to improve access to oral health services throughout the country by providing triage and referral to a dental practitioner for treatment if necessary, diagnosis of dental decay and gum disease, treatment options and estimates and education and advice. About 60% of adults did not have access to dental care, one in three New Zealanders were living with untreated tooth decay and half of all adults showed signs of gum disease, which was linked to conditions such as Alzheimer's, cancer and heart disease, she said. Often, the teeth of people visiting a dentist for a checkup were "in good nick" and Map My Mouth made it more productive for dentists as well, as they were able to focus on restorative treatments rather than preventive ones, and it would help address increasing wait times to see a dentist. She was particularly keen to target Māori, Pasifika and those with low incomes and she wanted to make the experience not as clinical and scary as the "murder house days" that many remembered. Ms Welsh, who has a degree in oral health from the University of Otago, started her career at the Southern District Health Board. While in the United Kingdom, she had the extremes of working in the public National Health Service to private practice in the famed Harley St, where famous faces were often spied, and she laughed how she was just "a wee Invercargill girl" in that different world. She also did some dental volunteering in Cambodia. She has taught in the oral health programmes at both Auckland University of Technology and the University of Otago, served on the Health Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal and acted as an examiner for the Dental Council New Zealand. Returning to live in her home- town of Invercargill, she said the southern city was an easy place to live, it was home to nice people and it was also where her family lived. When it came to the establishment of Map My Mouth, Ms Welsh said she had got to a point in her career where she wanted to either challenge herself or do something different. Hence attending Electrify Aotearoa courtesy of free tickets from Coin South, the innovation network for Southland startups and businesses. It had been a few years in the making, but from last week, a regular clinic would be held at the main Invercargill campus of the Southern Institute of Technology. She was also working with Number 10, a health and social service for young people in the city, and waiting to hear back from other organisations. At the moment, the startup is being funded by Ms Welsh herself, who is also working part-time at a private dental practice. She wanted it to be "a bit slow and steady" initially as she was a "one-man show". She was learning a lot about business, and it had been good to challenge her brain in a different way. She hoped it would be eventually franchised and integrated into the Ministry of Health, rolled out nationwide.
