The appointment of three board members on both Whanganui and MidCentral district health boards does not signal the end of health services in Wanganui.

Whanganui DHB board chair Kate Joblin said the idea that dual appointments means our community will loose its health services is total nonsense.

“To believe the dual appointments between Whanganui and MidCentral are about having one board and one main hospital for the region is not only incorrect but also small minded and completely lacks understanding of how specialist level services operate in 2010” said Mrs Joblin.

“Eight of the twenty boards have dual chair and deputy appointments designed to achieve greater regional collaboration in the planning and delivery of health services across the country.”

Waitemata, Auckland, Hutt Valley, Capital and Coast, West Coast and Canterbury also have dual appointments of board chairs and deputy chairs and 11 boards have dual board members.

Mrs Joblin said that the board's strategy has always been to strengthen the services and make Wanganui Hospital a centre of excellence.

“Contrary to the view of two of my board colleagues, I am confident that not working together will be the demise of the Wanganui's secondary health services” said Mrs Joblin.

“Wanganui is going from strength to strength and much of the success is due to working more closely with MidCentral.”

“One of these successes is that our hospital is receiving significant additional funding to perform 150 operations for MidCentral patients that can not be done by Palmerston North hospital.”