Cardiac unit
Sir, —Your editorial of December 30 falls short when you state, "If the payments to the Otago Board were increased merely to make this possible the manoeuvre would amount simply to fiddling the books.” This is far from the truth. Canterbury has been getting cardiac surgery on the cheap at Dunedin and elsewhere, for many years. The cross-boundary payments made by Canterbury to Otago are' at least $5OO a day short of the actual cost. This has two effects. First, it discourages the Dunedin unit from taking the necessary number of Canterbury patients, even when •it has been given Government money and approval for a higher throughput. This fact was confirmed at a recent meeting in Dunedin. Second, all other areas of health services provided by Canterbury, have benefited from the “cheap” cardiac surgery provided by other centres. Other aspects of your editorial will be vigorously argued later. —Yours, etc.,
J. P. GAVIGAN. * December 30, 1987. $
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19880104.2.93.3
Bibliographic details
Press, 4 January 1988, Page 12
Word Count
158Cardiac unit Press, 4 January 1988, Page 12
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in