Eastman Timing Equipment: Eastman Family

Departing doctor philosophical

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/asset...11_515x515.jpg Finishing at the medical centre will give Dr Vic Eastman more time to pursue his interests. Here he tinkers with some binoculars from a German WW2 submarine. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh

Finishing 19 years service as a general practitioner with the Golden Bay Medical Centre brings mixed emotions for Dr Vic Eastman.
On the one hand, he’s happy to have more time to follow a long line of interests he enjoys, such as sailing, astronomy, engineering, electronics and tinkering with computers. On the other hand, he feels sad that his role as a GP, caring for and advocating on behalf of his patients at the medical centre, has come to an end.
His long medical career has been filled with accomplishment. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1946, Henry Victor Eastman III was given the name of his father and grandfather before him. During WWII, his father, a navigator in a B24 bomber, was shot down and spent two years in a German POW camp. After the war he continued his training as a doctor and later moved with his young family to California to set up his practice.
Following a similar path, Vic attended medical school at the University of California, and qualified as a Doctor of Medicine in 1972, his diploma signed by then Governor Ronald Reagan. Vic met his future wife Liza as she was passing through California on her way back from Canada to New Zealand, and took a year off to live with her in this country, where he built an apple grader in Mapua and played farmer at Onekaka.
They returned to California, where he spent eight years specialising in trauma, accident and emergency work. When his father retired from general practice, Vic bought his practice and also inherited his work as an expert witness in medical malpractice cases, in which Vic was well equipped, having speciality certification in both emergency medicine and family practice.
No one in their social circle could comprehend when Vic and Liza, having established a successful practice and a comfortable life, left for New Zealand with their three children in 1989.
“What better time could there be to move on?” explained Vic. “Sell out just before the market crash, though we couldn’t have known that. Kids nearly teens, so still portable. And, we had two countries to live in.”
They built a house atop a 35-hectare ridge property, overlooking Parapara Inlet, that had been in Liza’s Washbourn family for four generations.
After working in Accident & Emergency in Nelson Hospital and as a locum in Murchison, Vic joined the Golden Bay Medical Centre in 1992, taking over Dr Arthur Pearson’s position alongside Doctors Kingston and Russell. He recalls a reaction to his appointment from one of the doctors, “Oh no, not an American doctor! First thing he’ll want to do is computerise the place.”
Vic’s computer knowledge paved the way for the system that now connects the Takaka and Collingwood surgeries, the hospital and the doctors’ homes. He expedited the re-establishment of the X-ray service after it was abandoned by Nelson Radiology in 1999. He was also the “fix-it guy”, with virtually all the centre’s equipment passing through his workshop for repairs over the years.
It’s no secret that Vic had strong views on the future direction of the Golden Bay Medical Centre, and this was one of the reasons he chose to move on when the practice was sold to new management, though he remains philosophical.
“I wish the medical centre well. But I do fear it has embarked on a business model that, to be honest, I’ve never seen working properly elsewhere. I believe our health services in Golden Bay just shouldn’t be run by a company in Nelson.”
The “company” he is talking about is the Nelson Bays PHO (Primary Health Organisation), which took over the running of the medical centre last April 1 when it purchased the business and equipment for the price of one percent of turnover.
Nelson’s PHO is one of about 80 currently in operation around NZ. They had their beginnings in Feb 2001 when then Minister of Health, Annette King, announced her Primary Health Care Strategy, designed to wrest funding away from District Health Boards and deliver it directly to primary health care professional providers, who are generally the public’s first port of call for health concerns – GPs, practice nurses, physiotherapists, midwives, counsellors and the like. Specialist care and subsequent time spent in hospitals is known as secondary care.
Dr Eastman believes PHOs were a promising concept to start with, potentially uniting the many faces of primary care into a single powerful voice to improve all primary services, but says their reining-in by DHBs fearful of losing power and by a government more-than-ever strapped for cash has forced many into a fine balancing act. Golden Bay’s Medical Centre is now part of this balancing act, and soon to be added are the community hospital and rest home.
“We must not forget it was forward-thinking people of Golden Bay who created our medical centre in the 1960s and put Dr Pearson in charge. Over the years it was enlarged and improved, largely based on community donations, becoming one of the best in New Zealand.
“How much gets spent and in what areas of health care here is now determined by bureaucrats over the hill. The PHO wanted me to become its employee like the other doctors, with all the usual restrictions employment brings, but I found this very uncomfortable from an ethical point of view. I believe doctors deliver the best care in a system where they can act entirely independently based on patient needs.”
When Nelson’s PHO took over the medical centre, Dr Eastman was able to continue working, contracting with the PHO to provide staff services and equipment to him, but his contract was permanently terminated on 31 December.
Stridently sticking up for what he believes in seems to come naturally to Vic. It’s easy to get the impression that he firmly believes the DHB has long had a hidden agenda to pare down the health services in our hospital. Three years ago, he was the subject of a 135-page complaint by Nelson’s DHB to the Medical Council and the Health and Disability Commissioner relating to his work at GB Community Hospital. He spent one litigious year fighting it and came out completely exonerated. However, the dispute, which he regarded as interference in his assessments and record-keeping there, saw his work at the hospital finish.
“I’m 65 in March, so you could say I’ve done my time. Maybe I’m getting a little old and scratchy, and I did promise myself I was not going to die sitting in my consulting chair in the Takaka rooms. My future is open, and I am moving on in my life and my career. In the last three weeks something like 20 offers of locum work have come in by email. I suppose I’ll have to assess things and make some decisions sooner or later. In the meantime, it’s nice to enjoy a little time off.”
Nelson PHO CEO Andrew Swanson-Dobbs commented on Vic’s years at the medical centre.
“The long and dedicated service Vic has given to his patients is much appreciated by people in the Bay. He is respected for his knowledge of medicine and also his experience in emergency situations. Vic also contributed a strong interest in office systems to the medical centre.”
Gerard Hindmarsh