Mobile surgical unit in Taranaki treats 2000th patient

A mobile surgical unit that tours the length and breadth of the country reached a significant milestone in Taranaki this week.

The theatre on wheels - which has been visiting the province since 2002 - treated patient number 2000 at its Hāwera stop.

Towed behind a big blue Mercedes-Benz truck, the imposing 20 metre - 42 tonne - surgical trailer has clocked up nearly 36,000 elective surgeries nationwide since its inception more than two decades ago.

Designed to improve access to healthcare, it specialises in paediatric dentistry, minor surgeries and endoscopy services - vital for early diagnosis of gastrointestinal conditions.

Stratford woman Cindy Lewis knows its value only to well.

"I'm under the public heath system for five-yearly bowel screening checks because my dad died of bowel cancer and he was only 50 and his mother died of it at about 70, so it's really important for me - I know how important it is for me - to make sure these checks happen."

It was her first time using the unit.

"It's fantastic, you know, instead of being outsourced to different places, you know, that doesn't quite work for everyone and their circumstances and that, so having this is just amazing."

Clinical nurse manager for the mobile surgical service, Kelly Ewen, described the state of the art theatre.

"We call it a spaceship, so there's lots of silver and it's got a waiting room, it's got a scrub bay which normal theatres have, it's also got a sterile services area where we can actually clean and reprocess our instruments.

"The theatre itself has got an operating table, it's got screens in there, it's got an anaesthetics machine, we've got an anaesthetics tech onboard, so yeah, just like what you see on the telly but the staff aren't as good looking, but don't tell them that."

She said bringing the service to patients was its point of difference.

"We do a five-week run around the country North and South islands. We go as far up as Kawakawa and Whangārei and all the way down to Gore and Invercargill and everywhere in-between.

"Patients are just so thankful. A lot of patients just don't travel. Well they can't travel or don't have the ability to travel."

Clinical nurse leader Tracey Doyle was hand-ons in the back of the truck.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's great, I love it. I love the concept that we are going to the people. We are known as the good buggers.

"It is very different to a regular big centre clinical area we have to [think] outside the box and we have to work as a tight team."

General manager of South Taranaki Rural Health, Kate McCrea, said the mobile surgery was a lifesaver.

"Absolutely, especially when you think of colonoscopies this is all around detecting and monitoring for bowel cancers.

"So if we have someone, who for whatever reason the two three hour round trip up and back to Taranaki Base Hospital is too much for them, then maybe they're not carrying on with that maintenance that monitoring, so that puts people at risk."

And you couldn't have a mobile theatre service without drivers, right?

Kelly Ewen explained the service's drivers had upgraded their job title a touch.

"In 2002 when the service started the doctors all had 'ologist' at the end of their specialities, so the drivers decided well that's not good enough, so they decided to call themselves 'steerologists'.

"There's Jimmy, there's Gavin and there's Sausage. So, Sausage has a brother called Saveloy and it does sounds like we're making this up, but they used to be butchers. Sausage's real name is Doug."

'Steerologist' Doug Grant explained the surgical theatre had clocked up more kilometres than the trucks towing it.

"We have two units this one and a kidney stone unit. We do a week on this unit, the surgical unit, a week on the kidney stone unit and a week off and we move around New Zealand.

"We only do 50,000km a year on the trucking units, so we don't do big kilometres, but this unit itself - the trailer - would've clocked over - I'm guessing - somewhere about five million kilometres."

With its work in Hāwera coming to a end, it was time for the unit to prepare to head to one of its 25 other stops around New Zealand.

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