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Nurses have been helicoptered in from Christchurch to relieve quake-hit colleagues in Kaikoura. Kaikoura Hospital staff also very "pleased" to be have shifted out just last year from their former more than 100-year-old hospital building.

Mary Gordon, executive director of nursing for Canterbury District Health Board said she was very impressed by how well Kaikoura staff had coped, with a number of staff with severely damaged homes. "We've had some staff who have been unable to get to work because of where they live. They've been completely cut off."

So the board had helicoptered in additional nurses to support the DHB's staff at the new Kaikoura Hospital.  Gordon said some had gone in and out but others were now staying up there. Kaikoura has been isolated since the 7.5 magnitude quake hit the community just after midnight on Sunday night cutting off both road and rail access.

"The hospital has been running for last couple of days with only generator power  - and no water or sewerage.  So that's challenging. And they have seen a number of patients," said Gordon speaking to Nursing Review on the morning of Wednesday November 16. About eight patients had been transferred out from Kaikoura.

She said staff were very pleased with how the new building was functioning.  Staff only moved late last year out of the more than 100-year-old Kaikoura Hospital into the new purpose-built integrated family health care centre (see more details below).

Gordon added that one of the medical staff said in a teleconference that they were "just so pleased" that the quake had happened when there were in their new building and had also said that "the building had behaved beautifully" and "staff felt safe to be there".  The hospital was also in a busy location just opposite the quake welfare based at Takahanga Marae and beside a park that became a temporary camp for many stranded tourists.

The Kaikoura Health Te Hā o Te Ora facility has 21 beds (14 for long-stay patients) and offers aged care, acute care, maternity, radiology and medical/trauma stabilisation services as well as being home to the Kaikoura Healthcare general practice. 

All PRIME trained

Gordon said the hospital nurses' normal work includes a lot of road accident trauma, particularly with the high tourist traffic, and so were all PRIME (Primary Response in Medical Emergencies) trained.

"So they have to do stabilisation of (trauma victims) before transport out," said Gordon. "They are quite used to the type of work that they are doing."

She said the DHB's community and district nurses had also been driven by volunteers from the local four-wheel drive club to check on the vulnerable elderly living in the community.  Some residents who were reliant on home oxygen had been brought into the hospital so the hospital's generator could power their oxygen concentrator machines.

Gordon said Kaikoura had two relieving GPs in town when the quake hit who couldn't leave so they had stayed on and assisted.  The Canterbury medical officer of health Dr Alistair Humphrey and two DHB health protection officers also flew into Kaikoura yesterday to provided public health support with a major concern being the risk of a gastro outbreak. “Power cuts, damaged sewerage infrastructure, people sharing accommodation and a lack of access to clean drinking water can create ideal conditions for the spread of infectious diseases,” said Dr Humphrey.

He is advising people to be vigilant with hand washing and, while water supplies were gradually being fixed, it remained crucial that people boiled their drinking water or treated it with household bleach.  He also said in a press release issued late on November 16 that now three days in from the initial quake that increasing numbers of exhausted people were presenting at the hospital with anxiety-related problems.

Gordon said along with extra nurses the DHB had helicoptered in some supplies including bottled water and a desalination plant was to be delivered today by the HMS Canterbury to help with the ongoing water supply.  More hospital supplies were being delivered to Lyttelton ready for HMS Canterbury's next journey to Kaikoura.

Michael McIlhone, director of nursing for Christchurch-based Pegasus Health which Kaikoura Healthcare is part of, has two GPs and three or more practice nurses.  He says with limited telecommunications it was working closely with the DHB and would work with the board to respond to any requests from the practice for relief staff.  "Obviously they are very busy," said McIlhone.  He said it would do its best to assist the practice in conjunction with the DHB.

The community pharmacy has been severely damaged so the local pharmacist has shifted stock and is dispensing from the hospital.

Community still paying for new hospital

When the new $13 million hospital – Kaikoura Health Te Hā o Te Ora – was officially opened in April this year by the Minister of Health the community was still facing paying off a $2 million loan for the new facility.

The government committed $10 million towards the project in 2013 after the Kaikoura District Council, on behalf of the Kaikoura community, agreed to underwrite the $3.4 million shortfall.

The Kaikoura Star reported at the hospital opening that the community had managed to raise $1.5 million towards the hospital through polo tournaments to op shops.  The Council in its draft annual plan in May said the successful fundraising meant it had to raise a loan of just over $2 million (rather than the anticipated $2.5 million) to pay back the DHB for the shortfall.  The community was meeting the cost of the loan with every rateable property in the district paying an $88 hospital charge.

Ironically, former Kaikoura MP Colin King earlier this year said that DHB money allocated for replacing the Kaikoura Hospital had been held-up for other urgently needed projects in Canterbury after the 2010-11 quakes so he had to urge the DHB to accelerate planning and finances for the new hospital.

The website for the Kaikoura Health fundraising trust also presciently talks about how vital having local health services was for the geographically isolated community and goes on to say: 'The Kaikoura District Council has recognised that “extreme weather events” will be a “key Issue” over the next ten years and past events have highlighted the need for self-sufficiency as almost annually all arterial routes into Kaikoura become impassable at some stage.