DHB board told to stick to budget

Health Minister Tony Ryall has renewed his demand for MidCentral Health to live within its budget despite news that the board was considering extensive service cuts.

Those cuts, revealed in yesterday's Manawatu Standard, are in the early stages of discussion, but could affect in-patient beds at the Horowhenua Health Centre and rehabilitation unit at Palmerston North Hospital, as well as sexual health, renal and diabetes services.

The information was included in confidential documents to a board planning workshop and which were were leaked to the Standard.

"The only way we can have long-term secure health services for the people of MidCentral is if we can get the district health board on a solid financial footing," Mr Ryall said.

"There is no certainty for staff or patients when DHBs limp along in deficit."

His message echoes Prime Minister John Key's speech in Parliament yesterday in which he said extra money for health would be limited for several years, and that the increases in health spending of previous years were no longer possible to sustain.

The minister said MidCentral received an extra $26 million, or 7 per cent increase in funding, this year, which was one of the largest increases in the country.

But it still faces a forecast $8.9m deficit this year in the face of increased demand and despite savings plans and the shedding of some management staff and the loss of 12 nursing and caregiving jobs throughout the hospital.

Meanwhile, the board's new chairman, Phil Sunderland, is assuring the public that the scenarios board members and management are considering are only at the "information gathering" stage, and no strategic decisions have been made. "We will need to explore what the potential issues are, and the consequences, and that will require further work."

And Horowhenua board member Lindsay Burnell said it was too early to alarm the public about where the cuts might fall.

"I did not leak that document because I felt it's very early days."

He said he would be "distraught" if there was a firm proposal to close beds at Horowhenua, but for now, he accepted it was just one of many options that had to be considered to reach a "massive" savings goal.

"I'm disappointed we have not been able to make the savings we need without having to look at these things."

- © Fairfax NZ News