SDHB extends radiology deadline

The Southern District Health Board has extended its self-set deadline to apply for Dunedin Hospital’s radiology department to receive accreditation.

Issues concerning leaking, asbestos, staff recruitment, waiting lists and records management had resulted in International Accreditation New Zealand refusing accreditation for Dunedin Hospital’s radiology department earlier this year.

The SDHB has previously said it intended to apply for reaccreditation in June, but that bid would now likely be next month, specialist services director Patrick Ng said.

"With recruitment under way, we believe we are taking sufficient corrective action to demonstrate to IANZ that this corrective action will be addressed," Mr Ng said.

"On the basis of this we plan to request reaccreditation by IANZ by early July."

The SDHB had completed necessary maintenance works, and had also confirmed a contract extension for its existing radiology information system software until mid-2020, Mr Ng said.

"This will provide us with enough time to replace the existing soft-ware.

"A vendor selection process for replacement software is under way, and we believe there is now sufficient certainty on software support and software replacement to satisfy the software related corrections that were identified."

As previously reported by the Otago Daily Times, the SDHB has drawn up an MRI recovery plan to address a scan waiting time which can exceed six months. That plan, which includes running an additional evening shift and weekend clinics, is dependent on the SDHB being able to recruit more MRI staff.

"Once we have recruited sufficient staff we believe we will be able to comprehensively address both issues," Mr Ng said.

The radiology department is operating as normal, but without accreditation Dunedin Hospital is unable to claim revenue from ACC work.

mike.houlahan@odt.co.nz