The Waikato District Health Board says the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) will be withdrawing its core training accreditation as of December.

Chief Medical Officer Tom Watson says this affects the training of junior registrars in its Women's Health Service but does not affect advanced trainees.

Waikato Hospital. Photo: Waikato DHB/Facebook

'Our medical specialties are regularly surveyed by their colleges to ascertain their suitability to provide training posts for junior medical staff,” explains Tom. 'This process accredits the teaching programmes that departments have for their junior doctors and consequently affects their ability to train junior registrars.

'The results of this process are usually positive in this organisation, with recent surveys of the Emergency Department and the Anaesthetics Department for example showing great results.”

A RANZCOG report received by Waikato DHB last week says several standards were not achieved by the board.

They related to training and support given by consultants to trainees, structured educational programmes and learning opportunities, and provision of core levels of clinical experience – competency and in-house credentialing issues.

RANZCOG initially raised concerns after surveying Waikato's Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department in 2013, and again in 2014, about steps taken toward addressing problems.

They informally expressed satisfaction with progress in February of this year against four requirements of the 2014 review that were to be achieved within six months.

The college also recognised the balance of work required to be achieved by the time of the health board's October resurvey 'would be a challenge”.

'Our Women's Health service began a Transformation Project in August this year to identify ways of improving our obstetric and gynaecological services in a wider sense.

'[This] included building a culture of excellence, better use of resources, strengthening training, education and research capabilities, and continuing the very good work being done in maternal quality and safety.”

Tom says they'll evaluate the report to understand what work is required and will also include tasks plus the Women's Health Transformation Project to work towards obtaining re-accreditation.

Loss of accreditation for the Women's Health service will not affect service delivery to Waikato women and babies, adds Tom.