Things have been getting a little heated in Twizel, where an outspoken component of the community has been pushing for answers on why yet another local GP has left a much-relied-on local medical centre. Shannon Gillies takes a closer look at what is going on in the small Mackenzie community.
Q What is the problem?
Late last year Dr Tim Gardner left the Twizel Medical Centre after about seven years as a GP in the area. He was the third doctor in about two years to depart the centre, after the departure of Dr Crystal Pyrak, who left to take up a contract in the United States, and Dr Annie Fyfe, who left to work in Kurow.
It is not clear why Dr Gardner left. Neither he nor the board of the High Country Medical Trust, which runs the medical centre, will comment publicly, but it has been suggested there were personality clashes with a medical centre manager and board members.
The High Country Medical Trust owns the shares in High Country Health and looks after the maintenance of the building. The trust contracts the day-to-day running of the medical centre to the board.
Mackenzie District Council Mayor Graham Smith said "Dr Tim" was well thought of in Twizel and people had built up good relationships with him.
"His sudden dismissal angered a lot of people."
That appeared to be the case.
Various groups formed on social media, the most outspoken of which was the Twizel Community Health Group.
The group has 152 members on Facebook, although only a handful of people make comments and share information on the page.
The group’s spokeswoman was Eleanor Harris-Brower, of Twizel, but she is no longer speaking to media.
A public meeting was planned for November 12, but was cancelled before that date, and plans were started to get Dr Gardner back and replace the centre’s board. Eventually, discussions about the issue online came to the attention of police after they received complaints about comments made online about medical centre staff.
Twizel man Ian Riddler said he set up the Twizel Community Health Group’s Facebook page because there was really nowhere else for people critical of the situation to go.
He believed it became apparent discussion was going to be stifled, so the Facebook page served an important role.
"It provided concerned citizens with a town hall discussion area whereby they could exercise the dual rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. The technology allowed people from all over, with some differing views, to join in a discussion."
The group’s position has the support of former High Country Health Trust chairman Scott Aronsen, who was asked to stand down during his time on the trust after what he described as a personality clash with another trustee. He said the Dr Gardner affair sparked community concern about management of the centre and believed centre managers needed to work as hard as they could to keep doctors, given how hard it was to get doctors to come to such an isolated area in the first place.
But Twizel Community Board chairwoman Jacqui de Buyzer believed the vocal concerns were of a small minority and did not represent the wider public view.
"I respect their feelings, but the majority don’t feel that way or perhaps they want to move on. The board made a decision and they wouldn’t have made that decision lightly and now it’s time to move on."
Mr Smith said the vacuum of information around what caused the doctor’s departure created a space in which unhappiness and dissent grew, though he could understand there must have been good reasons why both parties could not go into details.
This week more than 300 members of the Twizel community turned out to the trust’s annual meeting. Trust chairman Simon Williamson said usually 15 to 20 people, including the board, turned up.
Mr Riddler led the questioning of the board from the floor, but most attendees eventually grew tired of the debate, with people telling others to ‘‘shut up’’ and stating "this is not a union meeting". Fifteen people, including Dr Gardner, stood for places on the board. Tony Delaney and Connie Heath, neither of whom were involved in any agitation against the centre, were elected after 317 voting papers were cast.
Q Why has this issue struck such a chord in the community?
There were two things that made a town in the middle of nowhere, Mr Aronsen said: "The first thing is the school. The second is the medical centre. If we don’t have either we’re going backwards."
Mr Smith agreed.
"That’s why a lot of effort, time and money was put into the Twizel Medical Centre. It’s incredibly important for the future of a very fast-growing town."
Q What next?
A locum GP is in place and specialist visits continue at the medical centre. Mr Williamson believes with the election, the scuffle should be over and it will be business as usual for the centre.
He believed the meeting and election was a vote of confidence in the centre from the community.
Mr Smith said he thought it was a "very fair election to the board" and urged the community to consider that.
"I really think people need to take note of the fact things have been done in a democratic way."
Mr Delaney did not return calls this week, and Ms Heath, who said she was happy to be elected on to the trust, which would "work together with all the community and move forward", referred further questions to Mr Williamson.
Medical centre general manager Alison Smith said they hoped to hold regular specialist visits in the future and were in discussions to secure regular podiatry clinics and hoped to be able to have a visiting dentist and optician at the centre in the future.
While they are hopeful of resuming business as usual, others are still ruminating.
Mr Aronsen said he would be in contact with the South Canterbury District Health Board to get it to take a closer look at the trust, while complaints have been made to the Independent Police Conduct Authority about the handling of the alleged online abuse situation.
It seems peace is still a little way off in Twizel’s medical circles.
