Closer board links urged

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 3

Closer board links urged

The North Canterbury Hospital Board yesterday endorsed moves to form stronger links with the Otago Hospital Board.

The chairman of the board (Mr T. C. Grigg) said that last Thursday’s joint meeting with the Otago board had been cordial and amicable.

“I hope that the good relationship that has continued for years between the North Canterbury board and Otago University will now be extended to the Otago Board,” he said. The deputy chairman of the board (Mr C. F. Whitty) said that hospital boards in the South Island must work together, as any division in the south would only help to promote services in the North Island.

The joining of forces, even to the extent of a South Island federation of hospital boards, might be necessary to give more “political clout,” said Mrs M. McG. Clark.

“The moves with Dunedin are in the right direction by taking the initiative to be open and frank with our large neighbour with a ‘hot line’ which will help us to understand each other’s problems,” she said. Mr Grigg criticised the news media for what he termed the build-up of tensions between the two

boards over the determination of the Canterbury board to press for an earlier opening of the Christchurch heart-surgery unit.

“A main reason is that we have both been taking sides on issues relayed to us by the news media,” he said. “This is not the way to develop a good working relationship between each centre.”

In answer to a request by Mrs Clark for further information about the board’s proposals for an earlier start to the heart unit in Christchurch, Mr Grigg said that updated submissions would be sent soon to the Hospitals Advisory Council. These were being sent at the request of the Minister of Health (Mr Gill) and would include updated reports on when Christchurch Hospital operating theatres might be ready after alterations, and an updated report on the costs of setting up the heart unit. The chairman of the board’s works committee (Mr H. T. Dean) said that plans for the unit’s establishment at Princess Margaret Hospital were ready for the board’s planning committee. After they had been passed by the works committee they would be sent to the Department of Health for approval.