People must be heard on health reforms

If Southlanders want health services based in the south they need to push hard for them.

Southern DHB board member Lesley Soper said now was the time for Southlanders to emphasise the importance of strong hospital services, rural community services and local representation.

Yesterday, the Southern DHB released a briefing document inviting Southland and Otago residents to provide feedback on what healthcare might look like in the district under the health reforms.

While not set in stone, it proposes Southland be divided into Gore and the rest of Southland as two localities. What that exactly means in the longterm for people accessing services, or if they will have to travel further afield is not clear.

Interim Health New Zealand chief executive Margie Apa said the Southland locality’s boundary would be determined by the people who lived there.

Southland-based board members had previously asked for a clinical needs analysis of the Southland population because Southland Hospital is too small.

Board members and politicians have raised concerns that the Southland community would lose their voice under the health reforms.

Southern DHB board members, together with chief executive Chris Fleming have asked that funding be prioritised to build a fifth operating theatre at Southland Hospital and expand the emergency department.

The Strategic Briefing for the Southern Health System doesn’t include any specifics for Southland and its health needs, but does say ‘‘there may need to be investment in public health resources – as these resources are currently stretched,’’ and that access to after-hours primary care in Invercargill needs to be improved to take pressure of the ED.

Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds said the briefing was ‘‘all about bureaucracy and not outcomes.’’