Te Puia Springs’ first eye clinic
Dr Graham Wilson, Rachel Cook and Dr Dan Scott

Te Puia Springs’ first eye clinic

November 1, 2020 Dr Dan Scott

History was made on the 23 June with the inaugural eye clinic held at Te Puia Springs Hospital on the East Coast.

 

Te Puia Springs Hospital is probably one of the most unique primary health organisations in New Zealand being Māori-owned and operated by Ngati Porou. The hospital has a catchment area which covers more than 200km of coastline in one of the most remote areas of Aotearoa, between the Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay.

 

Patients from the East Coast present to Gisborne Hospital’s specialty clinics, not uncommonly with late and severe ocular disease. To provide earlier intervention, the inaugural Te Puia Springs eye clinic was planned over a few months, so thorough preparations could be made and patients carefully selected.

 

When it came time to hold the clinic, however, it was almost cancelled due to heavy rain the previous weekend which washed out the only road access from Gisborne. As it was, the ophthalmology team’s car was brought to a standstill by a herd of sheep crossing the road, reminding us just how rural this area is.

 

Ngati Porou Hauora

 

We stopped off at Café 35 in Tokomaru Bay, before receiving a warm welcome at Ngati Porou Hauora (Te Puia Spings Hospital) and a waiting room full of patients. We brought our own ophthalmic equipment, including our telehealth oDocs ophthalmoscope*, invented by a previous registrar, Dr Sheng Chiong Hong. An old slit lamp was dusted off and we were pleasently surprised by the amazing optics!

 

The success of the trip was highlighted in the first hour, as four patients were wait-listed for cataract surgery for total cataracts, including two patients that will have bilateral sequential cataract surgery. Consultant ophthalmologist Dr Graham Wilson, clinical nurse specialist Rachel Cook and myself, worked out of three rooms at the hospital, including a re-purposed x-ray room.

 

The successful, but tiring day was completed with a beer overlooking the water at Tokomaru Bay. Hopefully, this was the first of many future visits to help close the growing equity gap in our area. Who knows, next time, we might even have time to hop into the world famous local hot pools!

 

*https://eyeonoptics.co.nz/articles/archive/teleophthalmology-tech-goes-global/

 

Dr Dan Scott is an Hauora Tairawhiti ophthalmology registrar, based in Gisborne.