Cash boost will not fix woes, exhealth board member says
CHRISTCHURCH: A former Canterbury District Health Board member, who went on to set up Canterbury’s Charity Hospital, says the injection of $180 million to wipe the board’s deficit will not solve the board’s deeper problems.
Health Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday announced the board had been given a $180 million equity injection to cover its massive budget shortfall.
Surgeon Phil Bagshaw, chairman of the New Zealand branch of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said the money would not fix Canterbury’s longterm funding issues.
‘‘People in Canterbury are acutely aware that the population funding model doesn’t serve us too well here, and we’ve been in difficulty meeting our costs on that basis for some considerable time,’’ he said.
He said the board’s problems went deeper than just the financial issues, and until the governance changed the problems would remain.
‘‘The other worry that we have locally is that there has been a lot of bullying going on.
‘‘It has been a very intimidating atmosphere working at the hospital with people being treated badly and we are worried that given the current regime that sort of activity will persist.’’
In his letter to the CDHB confirming the bailout, Mr Hipkins said he expected the board to manage with its allocated funding.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the funding injection just highlighted that all district health boards were underfunded.
‘‘All of the DHBs could do with more money, and it’s not just that they want to flagrantly throw taxpayers’ dollars around.
‘‘If you look at the growth rates of acute demand it’s rising much more quickly than the rate of population growth, we’ve got a lot of poverty and we’ve got a lot of unmet need, and we’ve got specialist workforce shortages.’’
She said other boards also under stress included the Southern DHB which was living with a cramped hospital in Invercargill — desperately in need of a rebuild — and trying to build a new hospital in Dunedin.
In a statement, SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said his board had incurred operating deficits over a long period, and had received equity injections on several occasions, including $80 million in the last financial year.
He said the provision of an equity injection addressed immediate cash flow requirements for a DHB, but did not address the underlying operating deficit which gave rise to the cash flow situation.
‘‘Like Southern, the underlying operating deficit in Canterbury DHB remains an issue that they will need to address.’’
CDHB acting chief executive Peter Bramley said the money would go towards such items as payments to suppliers, heating and lighting for buildings and staffing costs.