2020 election on course for Sept 19

A MULTIBILLIONDOLLAR funding package for district health boards yesterday is a chance for Southern to claw back lost ground, chairman Dave Cull says.

In a preBudget package released by Finance Minister Grant Robertson yesterday, DHBs were allotted an extra $980 million per annum to cover running costs, representing a $3.9 billion commitment over four years.

Health boards were also budgeted additional funds to cover the cost of planned surgery postponed due to Level 4 lockdown restrictions.

‘‘It will allow us the chance to catch up, which is a major challenge both in terms of funding but also capacity, so it will be very welcome,’’ Mr Cull said.

Combined national deficits across all DHBs in the past financial year were $1.2 billion, of which Southern represented $85.8 million.

Board chief executive Chris Fleming said last week the organisation’s financial result for the year ended March was $5.4 million behind its budget and its deficit was just over $28 million, but most of the cost of fighting Covid19 was still to be accounted for.

‘‘I think the board felt, and I certainly felt, that we just had to get on with it and worry about the funding later,’’ Mr Cull said.

‘‘Now we gave got that reassurance we can move forward with confidence.’’

Last week, Mr Fleming said more than 400 surgeries had been cancelled due to Covid19 and more than 900 procedures had been postponed.

Mr Cull said the SDHB could now start addressing a backlog administrators have suggested could take more than a year to erase.

‘‘It’s not just a matter of catching up on waiting lists, some of those people their conditions may have deteriorated or their need may be greater.’’

How much each individual DHB will receive will be confirmed in tomorrow’s Budget.

Health Minister David Clark said DHBs were expected to lift financial performance.

‘‘I can assure you that I will be holding our DHBs to account on this, and the Government has already shown it will step in when it doesn’t see that improvement happening.’’

Mr Robertson said Dr Clark had left Cabinet in no doubt that the huge funding increase was vital, and Covid19 had convinced the Government to loosen the purse strings.

‘‘We have to have strong public services, and I think one thing that Covid19 has shown us is that having a strong, wellfunded health system is critical to the wellbeing of New Zealanders.’’

University of Otago commerce dean Robin Gauld agreed with Mr Cull that the funding was ‘‘catchingup money’’.

‘‘It has been going on for decades, the gap between what is provided within the financial envelope DHBs have and the need within the community,’’ Prof Gauld said.

Prof Gauld, a longtime critic of the DHB system, said boards had worked hard to try to be more efficient, but it was now extremely hard to do so.

‘‘Every DHB has probably got a worldleading example of some way of organising or delivering services, but how do you get those examples identified and rolled out across the sector?

‘‘At the moment we just don’t have any way of doing that.’’

National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse said the funding boost for DHBs was welcome, but would not cover last year’s combined deficit.

‘‘Covid19 has created even more pressure on our health system, with a significant backlog of missed surgeries and screenings needing to be caught up on.’’