A suggestion in a medical magazine that cardiac services at Dunedin are under threat appears to be speculation, says Southern District Health Board (SDHB) chief executive Brian Rousseau.
Mr Rousseau was responding to an article in the latest edition of New Zealand Doctor, in which Ashburton GP Ross Warring says he believes the long-term plan is to centralise many hospital services in Christchurch.
Dr Warring recalled a 1980s report proposing the South Island have only one comprehensive "tertiary" hospital, in Christchurch.
"He says he can't help but feel the writing is on the wall. `I can see cardiac services going from Dunedin next'," the article said.
Dr Warring was part of an Ashburton deputation to the Canterbury District Health Board last month, which unsuccessfully fought to retain 24-hour acute surgery at Ashburton Hospital.
Mr Rousseau said he could categorically rule out any threat to cardiac services at Dunedin Hospital.
"It appears to be speculation on the part of Dr Warring."
DHB board member and co-founder of the Keep Neurosurgery in Dunedin Facebook page, Richard Thomson, feared there were plans to centralise services in Christchurch.
"I think you do get a sense there are people in Wellington who take the view that one of the solutions to the health-care financial crisis is one South Island service for many things, but generally they have not been south of the Cook Strait."
Citing a report from the 1980s was meaningless because medicine had moved on since then and the boundaries between services considered "secondary" and "tertiary" had moved.
The South Island's geography should be argument enough to retain services at multiple sites, he said.
The SDHB is fighting to have two neurosurgeons based in Dunedin, after an independent report recommended all six be based in Christchurch.
A panel has been appointed to advise how the service should be organised, because the DHBs escalated the disagreement to the Director-general of Health.
Earlier this month, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons claimed it would be better for patients if the South Island's neurosurgeons were all in Christchurch.
Mr Thomson said many services relied on two surgeons, so if it was argued that two-surgeon services were unsustainable, it could affect many services, including cardiothoracic surgery at Dunedin Hospital.
Dr Warring is overseas and could not be contacted. eileen.goodwin@odt.co.nz
