A costly winter of sick days

A ‘‘terrible winter’’ has helped put the Taranaki District Health Board $1 million in the red just halfway through the financial year.

The more miserable than usual winter saw casual and overtime staff hours climb and backup beds rolled out to help ease demand.

For three months between April and September the occupancy in acute wards exceeded resourced beds.

Taranaki Base Hospital had on average six additional admissions per day compared to the same time last year - an increase of 28 per cent.

In June and July the hospital saw 383 additional emergency department, ED, attendances and 349 admissions.

Ha¯wera Hospital was also inundated with 408 additional ED attendances and 22 admissions during the same time and a total increase of 25 per cent compared to last year.

TDHB chief executive Rosemary Clements said the phenomenon was echoed across the country but she believed sunnier weather will help reduce numbers.

‘‘What happens now is as we move into Christmas, New Year and summer - our numbers just drop.’’

Clements said while the board expects to finish the year at a targeted $2m deficit, she admitted the start of the financial year had been trying.

‘‘Our consolidated position is sitting on budget but the actual hospital is in quite a large deficit this time of year,’’ she said.

‘‘The pressure has gone on to the financials because we’ve had to staff up all those extra casuals and part-timers to manage the extra beds we’ve been carrying for all of these months, 24/7. So that’s quite an impact on cost.’’

Following a national budget blunder that stripped millions from DHBs throughout the country earlier this year, TDHB received about $334.5m for year ended June 2018.

This was $950,000 less than last year’s allocation of $335.45m.

Though the health board had completed its 2016 financial year $3.7m in the red, Clements explained this was a part of a three year plan.

After the $80m hospital redevelopment in 2014, TDHB were told they would have to repay the $45m government funding.

This coupled with an ‘‘economic decline’’ resulted in Clements approaching the Ministry of Health, she said.

‘‘I went down to the Ministry and said, ‘You can’t possibly expect us to go from what our deficit was then through to break even in a year. It’s just not going to happen’.’’

TDHB is currently operating in year two of its three-year plan.

Budget discussions at the board’s monthly meeting held on Thursday included questions on the reasoning behind high acute patient numbers and its effects on personnel and clinical costs.

‘‘We’re doing analysis to determine what the increase is but the overall impact has been significant,’’ Gillian Campbell, TDHB chief operating officer, said at the meeting.

‘‘It’s not one thing where we can point and say this is the thing we need to focus on.’’

TDHB plans to close its surgical ward for three weeks, taking in just acute surgery and minimal elective surgery, as a routine way to ease financial pressure.

The hospital will also shut its medical ward for about five months.

‘‘Quite often about this time of year, we’re a bit over our budget but we find that over December, January, February, we can come back.

‘‘Coming back $1m is a lot but that will be our aim.’’

Contracts with other DHBs are also underway, which allow for supplies such as IV fluids, plasters and bandages to be bought in bulk at cheaper unit prices.