Draft contract secures funding for hospital

AFTER a funding dispute lasting more than a year, financing is about to be secured for the next five years at Oamaru Hospital.

Waitaki District Health Services (WDHS) chairman Chris Swann confirmed a draft contract was agreed to this week.

‘‘I don’t know whether you would call it a win or not,’’ he said yesterday. ‘‘What it does is, it gives some security . . . you need to have a contract in order to continue to operate the hospital.

‘‘We would like more funding, but that’s the nature of health at the moment. We have got financial constraints, as always.’’

The health board initially proposed a reduction in annual funding for WDHS, but that was taken off the table before official contract negotiations began in September last year.

The new contract is for more than $10 million in funding for the next year, which is slightly more than WDHS receives per year at present.

The health board and WDHS have been disputing the fund ing since at least March last year, when the hospital announced a cut in bed numbers from 30 to 24 and warned the community that, due to an expected 10% cut in funding from the health board, more cuts could be coming.

The new contract also follows a review of services at Oamaru Hospital, which recommended more coordination, improved posthospital care, enhanced roles for nurses and improvements in technology.

The changes are yet to be implemented.

Mr Swann said he could not say if the level of service or staffing at the hospital would change as a result.

Health board acting executive director planning and funding Liz Disney confirmed yes terday the draft contract would be effective from tomorrow.

Mr Swann said the two sides had agreed to funding without knowing exactly what the financial implications of carrying out the review’s recommendations would be, and for that reason the deal required a quarterly review as the health company implemented its new service.

The level of funding would be reviewed annually over the fiveyear term.

Five years allowed the health company ‘‘a good planning cycle’’ and while WDHS would be operating with financial constraints, ‘‘we’ve always had those financial constraints’’.

The contract would be finalised by midJuly.