Heart transplant programme ‘secure’
PA Auckland The Auckland Area Health Board commissioner, Mr Harold Titter, says he cannot imagine that those reviewing the area’s health priorities will recommend scrapping Green Lane Hospital’s heart transplant programme. Asked whether it was up to the board or the Government to decide the programme’s future, Mr Titter said some “fine-tuning” was needed on that issue. He seemed confident the programme was secure, in spite of comments by the Minister of Health, Ms Helen Clark, which appeared to question its future.
Ms Clark said she doubted she would have approved heart transplants as a priority if she had been Minister when the programme began.' She preferred more treatment for the many to hightech costly treatment for a few. “If it were my decision as . a board whether I had a heart transplant unit or saw more public health nurses employed throughout the region, my choice would certainly be the public health nurses,” she said.
“It seems to me that, for the limited demand, one is better in a really good
case to be supporting people to go to an overseas hospital without tying up all the money in New Zealand. We are, after all, a rather small country.” A spokeswoman from her office said later that Ms Clark was speaking generally and was not threatening the Green Lane programme. The heart transplant programme was started by the Government and is centrally financed. Ms Clark said money decisions were expected to transfer across to the boards from July 1 “so one is not as directly controlling it as in the past.” It would be up to Auckland health authorities to decide if they wanted the programme to continue. She said she would not direct them to do anything else with it “but I would certainly caution any (other) board against going that way. “I would be very concerned to see any other hospital operating, very concerned, because I don’t think it’s the best use of a finite health dollar.”
She intended to give health authorities a “very clear” idea of what she thought the national priorities were.
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Press, 3 April 1989, Page 2
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351Heart transplant programme ‘secure’ Press, 3 April 1989, Page 2
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