Many hospital wards to lie idle because of department’s ruling

Press, 11 July 1979, Page 1

Many hospital wards to lie idle because of department’s ruling

Health reporter New hospital wards costing many millions of dollars and already built throughout New Zealand will lie empty because of a Health Department decision. In Christchurch this will result in seven empty wards, and the end of other hospital projects. In Dunedin the fate of the Otago Hospital Board’s new $3B million wards block, the biggest in New Zealand, is in serious doubt. The Health Department has told all hospital boards that if they have exceeded the number of hospital beds recommended by the "Planning Guideline” prepared by the department, there "should be no new commissioning grants where the guidelines have been achieved.” The North Canterbury Hospital Board, the sec-ond-biggest in New Zealand, has exceeded its recommended number of beds by more than 300. The Otago Hospital Board, which is waiting for money to open its new 14-storey, 1000-bed block, has exceeded its recommended number of beds by more than 400. Only the Auckland Hospital Board is below the

recommended number. In all other board area's the figlire has been exceeded. Nationally, the bed excess is 3730 above Health Department recommendations. These extra beds cost taxpayers more than $llO million each year. The Health Department recommends that 16,027 acute and long-term geriatric beds are needed. In fact, State and private hospital provide 19,757 beds. The effect of the departmental ruling in Christchurch will be to stop work on bringing into use Ward 24 and Ward 26, two new wards in the $l7 million redevelopment of Christchurch Hospital. The prospect of further new ward blocks is also in jeopardy as any new project will mean that bed numbers for the board would be further exceeded. Christchurch Hospital, for example, already has 60 beds in excess of departmental numbers. Little prospect is held for any other new project, such as the open heart unit, for each new ward would add to bed numbers. Plans to renovate Ward 12, Ward 9, Ward 2, Ward 10,- and Ward 8 at Christchurch Hospital would also result in many more

extra beds, so finance for these conversions, costing in total about $300,000, is also ruled out. Because Christchurch already has 330 too many beds for geriatric patients, no action is likely to be taken on the proposed $1 million replacement for Jubilee Home and Hospital for the elderly. Christchurch has about 300 State geriatric kng-stay beds and 613 private geriatric beds. The private figure is almost as great as the 588 recommended by the Health Department as a combined number. One prospect being investigated by health officials is for the North Canterbury Hospital Board to withdraw completely from providing geriatric long-stay beds and hand all State geriatric subsidies over to private hospitals which already plan further units in Christchurch. Officers of the North Canterbury Hospital Board

are •adamant that only V under “extraordinary circumstances” do they expect hospital boards to be able to reverse the Health Department’s ruling on commissioning grants. The acting chief execu- , tive of the board (Mr G. W. Davies) said last evening that the fact* presented by the department's “Planning Guidelines” were "virtually impossible to argue against.’’ “The recommendations were prepared by the department’s management services and research unit. The combination of this report with the recommendations of the Planning Council makes the task of boards very difficult,” Mr Davies said. The recommendations of the Planning Council were too sweeping in that the council did not consider their implication*. “Certainly for hospital boards there is a tough time ahead,” Mr Davies said. .