Philippa Branthwaite

I attended the meeting last Thursday about the cuts to the obstetric and gynaecological services at Whakatāne Hospital. It was a sham. It was just trying to close down the protest and strong feelings the people of Whakatāne and surrounding districts have about these cuts.

East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick opened the proceedings by saying she was just there to share information.

Of course, she did not  acknowledge her Government’s role in cutting real funding to the health service of New Zealand.

The cuts to so-called back office staff  have, as predicted,  put pressure onto front office staff and led to low morale.

While the service we continue to get from Whakatāne hospital staff has been great, it is at terrible personal cost to all staff, including the doctors.

As many at the meeting said, the obstetric/ gynaecological cuts are just the tip of the iceberg with the emergency department, theatre and orthopaedic areas all feeling the strain already. And of course, we all know our GPs are under immense pressure.

Cath Cronin from Te Whatu Ora started by saying she was sorry but could not tell us why it had happened.

She said there were provisions in place, but did not give any more details apart from what was already known.

Many young mums, staff from the hospital, staff from emergency services   and grandparents all had questions that were not answered. For some reason she did not want to go into specifics, maybe because we would not like the answers.

I have some questions that were not answered at the meeting:

Who will take responsibility for the harm or deaths of mothers and babies as these cuts are now in place?

What training have Whakatane theatre staff in emergency obstetric operations that will happen here without the support of obstetric staff?

What training have emergency services had in handling the type of obstetric emergencies that will occur?

Who covers the Lead Maternity provider’s other patients when they have to go to Tauranga with an emergency case? Are they paid extra money for this? How do they get back to their home?

What is being done to recruit new staff for the positions?

Why is it impossible to have locum staff covering the positions when you can have locums for other positions?

Why can’t the Tauranga staff do two days a week in Whakatane? Why do our people have to travel?

And it is not just obstetric issues that is covered by these cuts. If women have to see a gynaecologist, will they be paid for the travel to Tauranga?