Health group predicts rise in death rates

Press, 30 September 1988, Page 7

Health group predicts rise in death rates

A dramatic increase in death rates could result from the closing of old people’s homes, said the Canterbury Health Coalition last evening. The group’s spokeswoman, Ms Jackie Newton, was commenting on the Canterbury Hospital Board’s proposal to close Jubilee Hospital. Overseas experience showed that death rates increased when old people were forced to leave what had been, to all intents, their home, she said. Although she had no figures immediately avail-

able, the phenomenon was well documented in England. A doubling in death rates could be expected, she said. It could be avoided by a “pre-planned, gradual transfer by attrition.” Ms Newton said the coalition, a community group formed this year to promote the preservation of public health services, feared that “something like this would happen” as the board sought to save $l5 million. But only on Tuesday the group was told by the board it was considering “efficiences” rather than

cuts in services. The coalition’s main concern was the future of the residents of Jubilee Hospital. It would object strongly if they were to go into profit-making, private hospitals, with their fees paid by the taxpayer. Ms Newton described this as “implementing the Gibbs report by the back door.” She was also concerned that, if the hospital’s medical patients wete transferered to Burwood, that hospital’s existing services could be compromised as the functions of its wards were rearranged.