Improving mental health care costs DHB

Improvements to Palmerston North Hospital’s mental health unit have once again played a role in blowing out the Midcentral District Health Board’s budget.

Despite assurances from Midcentral chief executive Kathryn Cook that the DHB would potentially recoup costs earlier this year, the budget was not looking healthy for the end of the financial year this month.

The DHB’S forecasted deficit was expected to be $2.7 million.

The mental health investment came after an external review was commissioned in June 2014 following apparent self-inflicted deaths while under the care of the hospital’s mental health service.

The review made 44 recommendations to address the issues, which included a lack of leadership, inadequate facilities and confusing service structure.

Mental health and addiction services service director Christopher Nolan said additional investments were made available to support the necessary redevelopment of the service.

Recruitment of specialised staff had taken its toll, as they used outsourced personnel who came with a higher cost.

The outsourcing came at a cost of $1.475m for senior medical staff and nurses, which was offset by $469,000 in money not spent on staff because of vacancies, Nolan said.

It is the second year the mental health service has experienced a budget blow-out due to staffing.

Fixing understaffing woes last year led to a budget blowout of $1.2m.

‘‘A significant increase in the number of clinical needs of patients has resulted in outsourced services being $900,000 unfavourable year-to-date.’’

That cost was mainly because of increased use of community support services and beds, he said.

In a report to the board, finance and corporate services general manager Neil Wanden said May’s operating deficit was $828,000.

‘‘This was $303,000 behind budget for the month and brings the years-to-date results to a deficit of [$5.3m],’’ Wanden said.

That brought everything to an overspend of $6.7m. The hospital reported a $238,000 deficit, which was just under $500,000 more than planned.

Cook said the forecasted $2.7m deficit would be challenging, but achievable.

Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-galloway said he felt for the DHB because it was trying to trying to make the most of an ‘‘incredibly difficult situation’’.

Lees-galloway said he believed the DHB was trying to provide adequate services for the region, but was struggling as funding constraints were tight.

‘‘I think a modern mental health service that appropriately meets the needs of our community probably costs quite a bit more than that,’’ he said.

‘‘At the same time the DHB is desperately trying to do the right thing. The right thing is to provide a mental health service that addresses all the needs in our community.’’

It was clear that it was not happening at the moment, Leesgalloway said. However mental health was not a priority for the Government, and it was explicitly clear where it wanted money spent. ‘‘The only way this is going to change is if we have a Government that sees mental health as a priority.’’