SDHB spends $9m in Covid19 battle

THE Southern District Health Board spent $9 million in five months combatting Covid19.

The Ministry of Health this week released the muchdelayed year ending June 30 financial results for district health boards.

Until earlier this week, the relevant page on its website had not been updated since March.

Southern recorded a deficit of $35 million for 201920, the fourthhighest of 20 DHBs.

However, when oneoff costs for the Covid19 response and compliance with the Holidays Act were added in, the SDHB’s total deficit was $49 million — the sixthhighest nationally.

Nationally, DHBs recorded a total $497 million deficit, plus oneoff costs of $480 million.

In the previous financial year, the SDHB recorded a deficit of $85.8 million, including oneoff costs.

That financial performance resulted in then health minister David Clark appointing two Crown monitors to observe the board’s performance as it returned to board governance after a period of being run by commissioners.

At its last board meeting, SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming reported that in the first month of the new financial year the board had recorded a $1.9 million deficit, $300,000 better than forecast.

However, he warned it was too early to say whether the improved performance represented a trend, especially as the additional cost imposed by Covid19 was so difficult to gauge.

The ministry figures demonstrated how rapidly costs for combatting Covid19 spiralled.

In April — two months after the first case of Covid19 was detected in New Zealand — $77 million had been spent on the response.

By June, that had doubled to $154 million.

The SDHB is budgeted to record a deficit of $10.9 million this financial year.