Hospital services to get the knife

Minister gives DHB hard word

Taranaki's public hospitals are preparing for cutbacks after the Government laid down tough new ground rules.

Minister of Health Tony Ryall told the 21 district health boards last week they must shorten their waiting times, work with less bureaucracy and better value their health workforce all without any extra money.

Taranaki, along with the other DHBs, last week received the minister's "letter of expectation" outlining the minister's future wishlist.

Priorities include increased elective surgery volumes, shorter emergency department and cancer treatment waiting times, better clinical staff retention and greater clinical leadership.

At last week's Taranaki DHB meeting at Stratford on Thursday, chief executive Tony Foulkes said the letter made it clear public health service priorities would be sharply focused on hospital services.

Money could not be spend in areas the board could not afford "and choices need to be made", Mr Foulkes warned.

"We've managed to increase services to people of Taranaki, but that's difficult to maintain.

"If you've got a limited budget you can't do everything.

"We have got to look where we are putting our energy, our time, our people."

There were also clear expectations the Government's priority areas were to be met while keeping within budget, he said.

Nevertheless, Mr Foulkes said it was helpful to know what the minister's expectations were.

The new requirements would mean a re-write of the draft district annual plan to reflect the new priorities, he said

"All of those things are good things to be doing and we want to make sure that we are delivering them."

Final decisions on what funding would be available for Taranaki would wait until the Government's May Budget, Mr Foulkes said.

Board chairman John Young said Taranaki was fortunate to enjoy a very competent and stable workforce, which was reflected in their results to date.

"One thing we have always exceeded is our elective surgery activity," Mr Young said.

The Taranaki DHB receives about $250 million from the Government each year to run the region's public health services, both within the two hospitals in Hawera and New Plymouth, and in the community.

Mr Foulkes said Taranaki was one of 18 of the 21 DHBs that had been struggling for several years to manage hospital and specialist services within budget.

For several years the hospitals had been spending more money than they received and costs were continuing to rise.

The hospital arm had posted a six-month operating deficit of $4.235m, coming in under budget by $2.696m, while its operating deficit for the same period was $3.395m, under budget by $1.856m.

Nationally, the 21 DHBs posted a six-month deficit of $72.2m to December.

The minister said last week this could blow out as much as $200m next year.

In his report to the board, Taranaki DHB finance general manager George Thomas warns that as the year progresses, many of the unbudgeted risks would come through, making it virtually impossible for the hospital arm to meet its budgeted financial result for the year.

In addition, the hospital redevelopment project scheduled to start shortly would place its own financial pressures on the operating budget, Mr Thomas said.

- © Fairfax NZ News