Mr Taha has been the city’s sole neurosurgeon in what is meant to be a three-doctor department for several months. That state of affairs is likely to continue for many months to come, a report to be considered by the Southern District Health Board’s hospital advisory committee on Monday said.
As reported by the Otago Daily Times in January, a surgeon has been identified to fill one of the two vacancies in the neurosurgery service.
"It will be critical that we have the confidence that the applicant will have the ability to perform surgery (as well as run their share of outpatient clinics)," the report from specialist services executive director Patrick Ng said.
"Assuming we can gain this confidence, their appointment will still be approximately 12 months away and we will need to work through the processes required to appoint them from overseas, ensure they meet Medical Council criteria, and so on."
This will mean the neurosurgery contingency plan, put in place by the SDHB in June last year to manage the shortfall in surgeon numbers in Dunedin for the next few months, will stay in place for the foreseeable future.
That means no Dunedin-based neurosurgeon will be available for out-of-hours calls, or if Mr Taha is on leave.
South Canterbury neurosurgery patients are now being referred to Christchurch, and there has been an increase of patients being transferred to Christchurch.
That had a knock-on effect on SDHB budgets, Mr Ng said.
"This is creating unbudgeted impacts on inter-district flows, air ambulance, medical air crew and other costs, partially offset by the fact that we had budgeted to have two locum positions filling the vacancies.
"We will need to plan the budget impacts for 2020-21 very carefully."
The demands on Mr Taha’s time meant the number of people awaiting first specialist appointments breached accepted wait times, and additional clinics had been organised to address that, Mr Ng said.
Neurosurgery in the South Island is provided by one service at two sites, in Christchurch and Dunedin.
Dunedin has never had the three surgeons it was envisaged would work in the department, and a review of the service in April last year said maintaining an acute roster in Dunedin had been "impossible without significant health and safety risks for both clinicians and patients over many periods during the last nine years."
