Southern DHB Appeal Success

Friday 4 December 2015

Southern DHB Appeal Success

Southern DHB Acting Chief Medical Officer says he is delighted that the DHBs appeal to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) against the decision of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association (NZOA) not to allocate orthopaedic training posts to Dunedin Hospital for 2016 has been successful.

In March 2015, the Education Committee of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association inspected Dunedin Hospital as part of an accreditation inspection. As a result of that inspection, the NZOA decided to not allocate three orthopaedic training posts to Dunedin Hospital for 2016.

Mr Bunton said that, “Southern DHB appealed the decision to the RACS for a number of reasons. These included that the DHB considered the way the inspection was conducted by the NZOA was not in compliance with the NZOA’s own procedures. In addition, the DHB considered that the decision-making process of NZOA was flawed in that it did not make available to its Committee members tasked with reviewing the hospital’s training posts, all information provided to it from Dunedin Hospital.

The committee of RACS who reviewed the decision of the NZOA concluded that the inspection was conducted in a way which was not procedurally fair to Dunedin Hospital.

“The decision of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to set aside the NZOA’s decision has unfortunately come too late in the year for Dunedin Hospital to receive its allocation of trainees for 2016. This is hugely disappointing both for Dunedin Hospital and for the trainees who could have taken up training posts in 2016,” said Mr Bunton.

A further inspection will now take place with a new inspection team.

ENDS

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