X-rays unavailable as machine loses its licensee
The X-ray machine at the Golden Bay Medical Centre is idle at the moment.
Dr Vic Eastman has stopped being the principal licensee, the individual required to be accountable for the safe operation of the machine. In the absence of a principal licensee the machine has had to be turned off.
“I’ve been the principal licensee for the last 10 years—since some public-spirited citizens decided to pitch in and prevent the X-ray machine from being taken out of the Bay by donating the significant amount of money required to buy it outright,” he said.
“With the change in the ownership of the medical practice itself, the situation changed. When Victoria Davis, the radiographer, chose not to be employed by the PHO I employed her myself. So from 1 April, I have carried on being responsible for the machine, but as a contractor. The arrangement has not worked, so I have stopped being the principal licensee.”
Dr Eastman said that the “approved courses and licences” the principal licensee required were “not that hard to get”.
“It’s a matter of liability,” he explained. “The National Radiation Laboratory requires the principal licensee to be an individual; they don’t want to be dealing with a corporation or a board. Two of the other doctors at the medical centre, Drs Clark and Russell, could fulfil the role if they chose to.”
About 500 X-rays a year are taken at the medical centre, and have saved Golden Bay people lots of costly and time-consuming trips over the Hill. The current X-ray machine is what Dr Eastman calls “last year’s technology”, but he stressed that there is nothing wrong with it.
“It’s not automatic, so the controls need a skilled person to adjust brightness, film speed and time,” he said. “But it’s not broken and it’s not run-down. We spent hundreds of hours last year upgrading and improving the protocols around the machine’s operating procedures to make it comply with the latest requirements.”
The Bay’s sole radiographer, Victoria Davis, has decided that she is no longer available to do the job.
Ms Davis has been a radiographer in the Bay for about 20 years, the last 10 or so on her own. She said she was getting tired and worn down.
“For a long time I was able to cope with being on call all the time, but as I got older and the demands of my personal life increased it became more difficult. I used to have someone I could call in as backup, but she got full-time work so I have been working alone. A lot of my on-call work has been for free, too. The nurses got paid for being on call and they got three hours’ pay per call-out. I got nothing for being on call and two hours’ pay. If I’d been paid what I should we probably couldn’t have run the X-ray. ”
Ms Davis paid tribute to the support of Dr Eastman but said that she generally felt “sick and tired” and “unsupported,” but was happy to be co-operative in terms of helping a new radiographer learn how to operate the equipment.
Ms Davis also said that she had found the professional isolation difficult, but had been most distressed by the suggestions made in other media that she had refused to X-ray injuries sustained by motocross riders.
“I have never, ever refused to X-ray anyone.”
The Golden Bay Medical Centre Community Trust, as owner of the machine, is ultimately responsible for the service. Trust chair Harry Holmwood said that he knew only what he had read in the paper.
“As far as I am aware, Nelson Bays Primary Health is trying to get Nelson Radiology to get involved. Once they decide to come over and have a look, negotiations will begin and we’ll have to put together a deal.”
NBPH CEO Andrew Swanson Dobbs said that he was “concerned and surprised” when he heard that X-ray facilities were no longer going to be available.
“I am working with the Medical Centre Trust and Nelson Radiology to find out how we can provide an X-ray service in the Bay,” he said. “Staff at Nelson Radiology have agreed to test the equipment it to find out if it’s going to be suitable going into the future. We have to have a stand-in principal licensee to get the machine turned on again and I am hopeful that that will happen soon.”
Neil Wilson
