Editorial: Steady at the Civic House but not DHB

OPINION: It has been a tale of two public services in Nelson this week – a revealing comparison of how a pair of the major public bodies here are responding to the lingering financial pressures of last year's recession.

The district health board is having to face the harsh realities of its masters in Wellington tightening the purse-strings, prompting the inevitable protests about the threat to services as management tries to squeeze out savings.

Meanwhile, the Nelson City Council has come out with its draft budgets and proposed rate rise for the year ahead – a more-than 6 per cent increase, well above inflation and leaving the inescapable sense that as far as Civic House is concerned, the hard-times are fast disappearing into history.

If that is the case, it needs to think again. Now is not too far off the worst possible time to be appearing less than mindful of the lasting damage done to government, business and household budgets these past 18 months.

While the commentary in the council's draft plan acknowledges the difficulties, the over-riding impression left by that document is of an organisation which sees no case for the tough sort of sacrifices which have been so common in the private sector and, indeed, among many Crown agencies.

The council may argue that its strategy has been to avoid exacerbating an economic slowdown by slashing its own spending.

Perhaps its reading of the political climate – with Local Government Minister Rodney Hide's bluster about capping spending proving empty, and tentative signs of economic recovery – is that it can continue to grow its activities on the back of ratepayers without too much backlash.

The case for restraint should not be confused with extreme arguments that the council needs to hack into its workforce and pare back to so-called "core services" to drive rates down.

But there is an unmistakable business-as-usual attitude pervading its plan; indeed the mayor's commentary speaks of a "steady as she goes" approach. That message will jar with those for whom recent times have been anything but steady.

No doubt many of the staff at the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board would envy the chance to see a similarly relaxed attitude pervading their management.

There, with the Government showing no tolerance for deficit spending by its health boards and with some cost areas threatening a blowout, the organisation has been left scrambling to find savings.

It has not gone down well with some staff. Nurses and doctors are said to be unhappy and warning that the juggling of workloads is risky.

The board may argue that some of the cost pressures are outside its control, but it will know it has no choice but to administer some bitter pills.

It seems that Nelson's DHB has operated reasonably efficiently in recent times. Yet it is always vulnerable to big, unpredictable and at times uncontrollable forces which can up-end its expectations with little warning.

Hopefully the board and its workforce can find a way to make adjustments with the minimum of pain and anxiety.

But if the gloomier predictions of where the cost-cutting could lead prove correct, we could yet return to the bad old days of scrapping to preserve our health services.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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