Fiordland doctors and health advocates, who’ve been lobbying for free local diagnostic health services for years, are frustrated that Wanaka has been granted free, publicly funded x-rays and ultrasounds and Te Anau, which has the equipment, has missed out.

The government announced free publicly-funded x-rays and ultrasounds to Wanaka on Monday (2 Mar), with Associate Health Minister Matt Doocay saying community feedback had made it clear that access to diagnostic tests was a major barrier to healthcare.

Fiordland Health Trust trustee Richard Wason says they’re disappointed that Te Anau has been ignored when there is such a growing need.

“We want exactly the same as Wanaka – completely free x-rays for patients and no top-ups having to be paid by patients in small communities.”

He says with no hospital facility in the town, Fiordland patients are currently the longest distance from a base hospital (Southland Hospital) in New Zealand, in relation to their population.

“The population between Te Anau and Manapouri is around 4000 and that can triple every day during the peak summer season, so our health services have to cope with that huge influx of tourists and those here for the outdoor recreation.”

He says it was a substantial amount of fundraising and community goodwill that enabled the trust to build its current $1.4m medical centre, where the Fiordland doctors are tenants.

“We were very lucky when we started the project 20 years ago that we had some very good benefactors who’ve donated hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years,” Wason says.

However, the community should not have to pay for services that were offered for free elsewhere in New Zealand, especially now that another small community like Wanaka has been granted that funding, he says.

Fiordland Medical Centre partner Dr Steve Hoskin agrees and says while they were provided with an instant, digital reader image x-ray machine in 2017 - a huge asset, the medical centre currently bears the costs of operating and staffing that on its premises.

Fiordland Medical Centre partner Dr Steve Hoskin. Photo: Supplied

The new machine was provided after their previous x-ray machine was struck by lightning.

”The hospital can supply the asset, but we still need to pay for a room, staff training, licensing, reporting, IT, checks and accreditation,” he says.

“If we added our actual costs to each x-ray, it would’ve cost patients $350 – only $50 of that covered by ACC, if applicable, and that’s based on 2016 expenses, he says.

“People just can’t afford that, so we charge our registered patients $85 for an x-ray and visiting New Zealanders $115, and we absorb the rest of the cost.”

Hoskin is upset that Te Anau’s been missed in the government’s Wanaka announcement this week when he’s spent countless hours pleading for funding to no avail.

“I’ve been writing letters to successive health departments and politicians for a number of years when my time and energy should be going into my patients, not chasing funding,” he says.

“I’ve pointed it out to Health Minister after Health Minister, and they always tell me they’ll ‘look into it’.”

He says it’s “fantastic” to have the x-ray which saves so many patients the drive to Invercargill, with doctors in Te Anau – basecamp for an outdoor playground – seeing a lot of fractures.

“We do one x-ray a day on average, but we can send the x-ray to the orthopedic surgeon at the hospital who’ll sometimes say, ‘No it’s too swollen for surgery’, or ‘The surgical list is chocker, so don’t send them down now’.”

(L-R) Fiordland Medical Centre partner and resident GP Steve Hoskin, Meridian Power-up fund trustee Jill Tauri and Fiordland Health Trust trustee Richard Wason check out one of the new procedure rooms in the Fiordland Medical Centre in 2024. Photo: Liz Newell/Supplied

“That’s a big time and money saver for patients, especially a mum with kids who all have to be bundled into the car.”

The only other change for the better since the new x-ray arrived in 2017 is that a certified radiographer, resident in Manapouri, is funded to do an x-ray clinic once a fortnight.

“That’s useful for elective x-rays, such as an arthritic hip, but doesn’t cover the cost of an acute service for broken bones. Much more is needed,” he says.

“We need adequate funding to provide equitable access to this service for people,” Hoskin says.

“If a patient presents at Southland Hospital’s emergency department after a fall they get a free x-ray, but if they fall in Te Anau, they don’t. It should be equitable,” he says.

“We’re glad for the people of Wanaka, but we want the same access to free health services.”

Southland MP Joseph Mooney has been asked to help over the years and Hoskin says he last heard Mooney was going to ask Health Minister Simeon Brown.

“I’ve got a letter I sent in 2016 listing all the items we pay for and asking the government, ‘Please help!’

“Obviously they’re relying on the goodwill of a private business and we’re needing help. We have 4500 patients on our books and over summer it may be three times that.”

The medical centre has an ultrasound device at the clinic, only available due to community generosity after the local Baptist Church, which was closing, donated $20,000 and Fiordland Lobster Company $5000, to buy one.

“Wanaka has a trained sonographer and radiographer in town,” Hoskin says.

“Our doctors are not trained sonographers so we can’t do those more detailed scans, and it would be hugely helpful if they sent us funding for one (sonographer),” Hoskin says.

“It’s interesting that Wanaka’s getting more ultrasounds funded than x-rays and all our pregnant women are having to drive to Invercargill or Queenstown for their ultrasounds."

"We don’t have a trained sonographer, and we’d like funding so we can offer normal scans to pregnant women."

"About $120,000 would also enable us to do x-rays for free,” he says.

Thankfully, blood tests can now be offered for free after the community fought for that.

Wason says the rapid growth in Te Anau warrants a hand from the government with the medical centre that the trust built 10 years ago, thanks to community support, already doubling in size to meet demand.

The latest much needed, 110sqm extension only opened in May 2024.

He says it’s wrong that the Fiordland community has had to fight so hard to get basic publicly funded services that other rural communities already have.

Free Blood Tests For All

After years of lobbying the government Te Anau and Wanaka GPs have only been able to offer free blood testing since the government approved this funding in October last year.

Hoskin says previously the 4,400 people living in Te Anau were forced to travel up to two hours to reach a free collection centre in either Queenstown, Gore or at Southland Hospital.

“We were given a 12-month trial to offer free blood tests here on site and we’ve been told that’s carrying on for another three years so that’s great,” Hoskin says.

“Hopefully that’s locked in.”

It had been becoming “a safety issue” with some patients, unaware of the seriousness of their condition, holding off their blood tests, he says.

“However, the government is only paying for the time of the professional to take the blood, not a building. It has to be done in a room at Fiordland Medical Centre.”

Prior to this breakthrough the “tiny bit of funding” made available through Southern Community Laboratories (now Awanui Labs) never changed, despite an aging and growing population, Hoskin says.

“In the last five years or so, we have been able to do point of care testing in a little lab in our medical centre to detect the likes of heart attacks."

"We can now run these on our site, which is doubly helpful."

"We can detect people who need to be rushed to hospital, and we can save people from travelling who don’t need hospital.”

The Southland App has approached Southland MP Joseph Mooney for comment but had not received a reply at the time of going to print.

Sue Fea is a senior journalist with more than 40-years experience covering police, social and general news in the southern regions.