Speaking at a Health Informatics New Zealand seminar on health IT innovation in Canterbury last month, Dr Garrett said people on the coast are "unique and have their own strong character" and often don't make demands on the health system.
"They don't have the same expectations for health services as people everywhere else, but I think we should be aiming to give them the same healthcare they would get if they were anywhere else in the country," he says.
The population is the smallest of the DHBs, with only 32,000 people, but they are spread over a distance similar to that between Wellington and Auckland, Dr Garrett says.
The Southern Alps form a large physical barrier for the West Coast.
"We can't take all of the health services on the coast off them and expect people to travel off the coast to receive their health services, because they often are impeded in being able to do that.
"There are only three roads on and off the west coast: Haast Pass in the South, and Arthur's Pass and Lewis Pass in the North."
Adverse weather events causing disruption to transport are not uncommon, he says, and access can be blocked for days, sometimes weeks at a time.
And there are days when it is not possible to fly out.
Dr Garrett is a consultant for Canterbury and West Coast DHBs, and a member of the NZ Telehealth Forum's leadership group.
He described how telemedicine tools, such as video conferencing, support health services on the coast.
The tools help healthcare professionals collaborate to deliver specialist care despite geographical obstacles.
Dr Garrett gave an example of a two-week-old baby, with eating and sleeping problems, who had presented to a GP in Buller.
Dr Garrett was called in Christchurch and it was decided the baby would be flown to hospital. In the meantime, the GP administered intravenous antibiotics.
A paediatric retrieval team was unavailable, so the baby had to be picked up by an adult team. An ECG confirmed the baby had a supraventricular tachycardia, which is uncommon in babies and it was unlikely the GP in Buller would have come across it before.
Dr Garrett was able to talk the intensive care team through the differences and similarities between adults and infants with the condition and they were able to treat the baby and return the heart to a normal rhythm.
The primary and secondary care providers in Canterbury and the coast have had to get together "to figure out how best to treat patients", he says.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jen de Montalk
Quelle/Source: New Zealand Doctor Online, 19.06.2013
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