Health in the south needs help
While the National Government is embroiled in the Todd Barclay debacle that is now squarely focussed on the Prime Minister and his moral leadership, there’s a worsening crisis within our local health system with long term consequences.
A massive blunder by the Ministry of Health which misallocated $38 million for the coming year’s budget for all district health boards, after draft figures were submitted instead of the final ones. The mistake meant 14 DHBs were inadvertently allocated more money than they should have been, while six received less than they should have.
The SDHB was second on the list of those overpaid, having been accidentally allocated an extra $5.66 million - money it will not now receive.
That money could have funded 2099 cataract operations. For the people whose eyesight permanently worsened while waiting for treatment in Dunedin and Southland hospitals earlier this year, that could have been the difference between getting an appointment with a specialist or even surgery. These issues appear to be worsening. Last week I wrote a letter to the DHB on behalf of an elderly man who was told by the hospital that due to ‘‘medical staff resourcing’’ he would not be scheduled an appointment with the Opthamology clinic.
That money could also fund 298 hip operations. In 2015/16 nearly 7,000 people at the Southern DHB were refused a specialist appointment and sent back to their GP. Sometimes asking your MP to write to the DHB and demand a review of your case will get your operation. Sometimes talking to the local paper or TV will make a difference, but it shouldn’t take an MP or a media story to get the health care that people need!
That money could also have employed 120 more nurses, or 45 more doctors. Meanwhile, the most vulnerable families are being priced out of going to their GP with the average fee in the Southern DHB region for adults at $40.61 in 2017. It’s no wonder there are more than 3000 enrolments at the low-cost GP He Puna Waiora Wellness Centre in Invercargill, where a GP costs $17.50. That service provided by a charitable trust is now oversubscribed. When community-based services have to step up to help fill the gaps in taxpayer-funded health and housing services there’s something really wrong with our systems.
Add this blunder to a cashstrapped board, a dilapidated hospital in Dunedin, low staff morale, another restructure to try to take yet more costs out of the system, long waits for specialist appointments and surgery, and prohibitive GP costs, which are just some of the problems being faced by southerners while the National government continues to strip health funding from the Southern DHB.
We need to fix the funding formula which disadvantages DHB regions like Southern. Sort out the waiting lists. Raise morale. Rebuild Dunedin Hospital. Invest early intervention mental health scheme. No more sitting on our hands and pretending everything’s hunky dory as this government is doing. The National Government has had nine years. It’s time for a change.