Focus on jobs, closing wards and hospitals

Press, 25 July 1989, Page 16

Focus on jobs, closing wards and hospitals

. The Southland Area Health Board looked towards closing the maternity hospitals at Tautapere and Gore, reducing occupational therapy throughout its area 20 per cent, reducing medical social workers by half, closing surgical facilities at Gore Hospital, closing two wards at Invercargill’s Lome Geriatric Hospital and one ward at the long-stay geriatric institution at Riverton. Job losses could climb to more than 200. The board has received more than 1200 submissions on its proposals, mostly from Gore and Eastern Southland. Most controversial is the proposal to close surgical facilities at Gore Hospital. The board’s acting general manager, Mr John Pannett, said the board believes it will be cut $4.2 million in real terms. It believes pay increases will cost $1.3 million, the rise in GST $1.4 million and inflation $495,000. It expects the funds from the Government will drop 1.5 per cent, costing it $900,000. . The board hopes to start making costcutting decisions during the week starting August 20. The Otago Area Health Board hopes to maintain its present volume of services provided cuts are limited to about 5.5 per cent. The board, with a budget last financial year of nearly $l5l million, expects its funding in real terms will drop $8 million to $9 million. It hopes to keep redundancies below 150.

In June its board was presented with a list of possible cuts which would amount to savings of 9.7 per cent. Of these, cuts totalling 5 per cent have already been approved. These include cutting the accident and emergency department workload by referring more minor cases to general practitioners, staff cuts, reductions in patient time in hospital after surgery, and more day services.

Main proposals still being considered are:

• Closing Queen Mary Maternity Hospital and moving its services to neighbouring Dunedin Hospital for a $682,000 saving. • Accelerating the board’s policy for resettling intellectually handicapped residents of Cherry Farm Hospital into a community setting and transferring its psycho-geriatric patients to Dunedin’s Wakari Hospital for a joint saving of $2.8 million. .

• Closing Cromwell Hospital and transferring its services to Dunstan Hospital, 30km away, for a $667,000 saving. • Closing Mosgiel Hospital for an annual saving of $386,000. • Nelson’s Area Health Board, which merges late this year with the Marlborough Board, expects a 7 per cent cut in spending. “We have certainly looked at quite a few different options,” said the assistant general manager (finance), Mr Eoin Powell.

“The main thrust of what the board is trying to do is to continue to offer the same services at a lower cost, rather than cut any particular services.” However, the board was looking at the possibility of axing its accident and emergency department at Nelson Hospital and handing the work to general practitioners. Marlborough’s board, with a $22 million budget last year, was planning for a 10 per cent reduction in spending power.

“We are looking to cover such things as debt servicing, which boards are responsible for from July 1,” said its corporate services manager, Mr Harry Halliday. Mr Halliday said Marlborough’s indebtedness was "fairly high” and the board was planning to cover that cost. The board is shedding about 18 beds. There will be a slight reduction in bed numbers at Wairau Base Hospital, and Picton Hospital, which cost $BOO,OOO to run last year, will close. “Obviously staffing will be affected. You can’t make reductions in the order of 10 per cent without that.” Mr Halliday said the board hoped to make the reductions without redundancies.

The South Canterbury Hospital Board has an interim budget for the year beginning July 1 of about $35,356 million. It expects its allocation will fall about $500,000 short of this figure. It faces a $3 million reduction in spending over last year in real terms. The board last year implemented a big reduction in spending on equipment and for the 12 months has had a blanket nonreplacement policy for staff. It has improved administrative efficiency and earlier this year closed a ward at Timaru Hospital through amalgamating obstetric and gynaecological services.

The financially-strapped Auckland Area Health Board announced big cuts in May in a bid to retrieve its blown-out budget and to cope with the cuts this coming year. Its difficulties began at the end of the 1987-88 financial year when it was forced to carry over an $8 million deficit.

The next year its budget was cut 3 per cent and in spite of its efforts it finished the year with a $23 million deficit, prompting the appointment in March of a commissioner, Mr Harold Titter, to tackle the problem. The May cuts announced by Mr Titter were aimed at reducing this deficit and tackling the spending cuts for this year, probably another $23 million again. They involved the closing of Carrington and St Helen’s Hospitals within a year.

Green Lane Hospital’s accident and emergency department closed on July 17 and a week earlier general medical and surgical wards, targeted in the blueprint, closed.

His plan involves the loss of 1300 jobs and the handing over of long-term geriatric care wholly to the private sector.

The Wellington Area Health Board’s general manager, Dr Karen Poutasi, said the board was looking towards a 10 per cent reduction in spending in real terms. Cuts were being considered in areas with the “least negative impact.” The board had considered closing two outlying maternity hospitals, but this plan was abandoned.

The board brought forward the closing of the geriatric hospital at Silverstream. No other institutions have closed but the board has already shut a medical ward at Wellington Hospital and plans to close a surgical ward. Last financial year the board closed a medical ward at Hutt Hospital and is considering closing its accident and emergency department at various times — a plan not backed by Dr Poutasi because of the limited savings it would achieve.

Dr Poutasi said the cuts so far are not likely to meet the required cuts in spending to stay within budgets and further options will need to be looked at.