‘Consequences’ should be made known

Press, 8 April 1988, Page 4

‘Consequences’ should be made known

By

CHRISTOPHER MOORE

New Zealand’s healthcare consumer should be made fully aware of the consequences of implimenting recommendations in the Gibbs report on hospital and related services, according to the New Zealand Hospital Board’s Association executive.

In a statement released after an executive meeting in Wellington yesterday, the association chairman, Mr Tom Grigg, agreed that the task force report had “merit” in addressing the reform of management systems and improved information systems.

‘‘We note that the report endorses the belief that deficiencies in management information have resulted in part from the

actions of the Department of Health,” Mr Grigg said.

“Some of its criticisms, however, appear unduly harsh. The report bases its indictments on the finding of the Anderson report. “The association looks forward to the opportunity to study the base data and working papers on which this report based its conclusions.” While the association agreed that savings could be achieved by closing some hospitals, reducing staff and increasing efficiency in hospital and support departments, it was important that the health care consumer was made fully aware of the results of these moves. "We have some, reservations about the proposed organisational

structure which seems completely opposed to the current movement towards area health boards.

“It creates greater distance between the local community and the funding authority. “It gives central regional authorities the power to decide the type and balance of services and the provider organisations best suited to deliver them," Mr Grigg said.

The association believed that the move towards general management and greater independence of the area health boards would allow most of the improvements recommended by the task force to be carried out "if that is the popular will within the current organisational structure.”