In a written response to questions, Andrew Boyd, group director of operations for Bay of Plenty, said there had been \u201cgood progress with international recruitment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are prioritising the recruitment of senior medical officers to Whakat\u0101ne Hospital to support the recommencement of secondary obstetrics and gynaecology services into the Eastern Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus remains on achieving the best possible outcomes for patients, including mothers and their wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health NZ held a community hui late last year in Whakat\u0101ne, Kawerau and \u014cp\u014dtiki, with \u201cconstructive\u201d discussions on the future of obstetrics and gynaecology services at Whakat\u0101ne Hospital, Boyd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank the community for its patience, feedback, and continued support as we strengthen these vital hospital services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uncertainty \u2018frustrating\u2019 \u2013 midwives<\/p>\n
Community midwives said the sudden resignation of the specialist in December \u2013 after less than six months\u2019 orientation at Tauranga Hospital \u2013 was worrying.<\/p>\n
One local midwife, who asked to remain anonymous, said the doctor had been introduced as the person recruited to lead the service at his welcome party at Whakat\u0101ne maternity unit in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs usual, communication has been poor and we do not know why he felt he could no longer continue in his role, after previously appearing highly motivated and keen to get started,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can appreciate the frustration this has caused to many hopeful for our obstetric services to be reinstated by March and the uncertainty surrounding a replacement for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another midwife said three new obstetrician-gynaecologists had been welcomed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two more being recruited and they are on track for an April commencement of full services.<\/p>\n
\u201c[But it] depends on the recruitment and if they can hold these new ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
RNZ understands Health NZ\u2019s regional director for Midland Te Manawa Taki, Cath Cronin, stipulated the Eastern Bay Plenty service must be re-established in April.<\/p>\n
However, some Tauranga Hospital staff fear specialists may be required to help cover Whakat\u0101ne, if it was not fully staffed by then, putting more pressure on their own services.<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a written response to questions, Andrew Boyd, group director of operations for Bay of Plenty, said there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9218,7061,2082,692,31037,2241,111,43,139,69,106487,145690,205,6624,1569,2240],"class_list":["post-250632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-before","tag-doctor","tag-for","tag-he","tag-hill","tag-hospital","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quits","tag-recruited","tag-role","tag-ruth","tag-starts","tag-whakatne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}