Clark hints Protests on at savings cuts planned

Press, 21 July 1989, Page 3

Clark hints Protests on at savings cuts planned

The Canterbury Area Health Board might have to move some services as well as sell some land if it was to shave $3O million from its spending by next June, Ms Clark said yesterday.

She did not say the board should close hospitals, but she said the board was “taking the sensible approach” to cost-saving through its special budget taskforce.

Some of the task force options included closing Christchurch Women’s Hospital, Coronation Hospital, Jubilee Hospital, and Queen Mary Hospital, moving services within other general hospitals and closing most of the board’s country hospitals.

Ms Clark said she was not opposed to moving services as long as they were not removed altogether.

Unions would have a right to be concerned if services were eliminated, but closing institutions should mean the services were less widely spread, Ms Clark said. Boards under the old health administration system had been "too tied to buildings,” she said.

Ms Clark said she wanted the health service to concentrate more on promoting wellness as well as providing medical care.

"We need to move away from institutions and into the community.” The Canterbury board faced its present financial constraints because it had spent more than its agreed grant, said Ms Clark.

The wages bill and GST increases had compounded the overspending by the former Canterbury Hospital Board.

Further protests against proposed cuts in health spending in Canterbury were planned at a meeting in Christchurch on Wednesday. The 30 people who attended a Canterbury Health Coalition meeting had rejected the cost-sav-ing options being considered by the Canterbury Area Health Board, said a spokeswoman for the coalition, Ms Lynne Lewin. She said a woman told the meeting her intellectually handicapped children’s villa at Templeton Hospital might close. She was concerned that children living in community housing would be the target of “rip-offs.” More stress would be placed on overburdened families. A man involved with an over-60s group directed his anger at the health

cuts towards the Government, said Ms Lewin.

“He said that some elderly feel the Government would like them to go away and die.”

The meeting was also told about the possible closing of Queen Mary Hospital, the alcohol and detoxification unit at Hanmer Springs. Some people believed that there were already not enough detoxification beds. Cuts in addiction treatment would only cause more deaths, violence and pain, said Ms Lewin. She said the meeting had also agreed that four weeks was not long enough for people to make submissions on the proposals. A further public meeting will be held on Tuesday to finalise a date for the first public rally.