Surgical bus cuts patients' travel time
Five other patients who would otherwise have needed to travel north were also operated on by MidCentral dentist Phillip Marshall. The 20-metre-long bus is ...

Horowhenua residents have surgery services available at their back door now that a mobile surgical bus is rolling into town, offering 300 different types of procedures.

Nine-year-old Richard Dunning, who dreads going to the dental nurse, received specialist dental care when the surgical bus visited Horowhenua Health Centre for the first time this week.

A dental list was scheduled for the first day of operations in Levin, which enabled Richard to have dental surgery for which he would otherwise have had to travel to Palmerston North.

Five other patients who would otherwise have needed to travel north were also operated on by MidCentral dentist Phillip Marshall.

The 20-metre-long bus is owned by Mobile Surgical Services, which built the 39-tonne vehicle in 2002 at a cost of $5.2 million. It is 4.2 metres high and five metres wide and travels to small towns from Kaitaia to Gore.

Staff can perform up to 300 different types of procedures on the bus including dental and ear, nose and throat procedures, endoscopies, general surgery such as hernias, haemorrhoidectomies, gynaecology, cataract extractions, varicose vein and orthopaedic surgery.

When the mobile surgical bus returns to Horowhenua Health Centre grounds in about a month, it will be to carry out general surgery that would otherwise require patients travelling.