Hospital staff briefed on cost-saving

Press, 29 July 1989, Page 9

Hospital staff briefed on cost-saving

By

DEBORAH

MCPHERSON More than 1400 staff at Christchurch public hospitals were briefed by unions yesterday on the cost-saving options being considered by the Canterbury Area Health Board to help it save $3O million. No services were disrupted as employees attended three meetings staggered throughout the day. The meetings had been called by the Council of Trade Unions and the Combined Health Employees Committee. The C.T.U.’s Canterbury secretary, Mr John McKenzie, said the unions had felt "more comfortable in Canterbury” than other regions. The board had been reasonable in ensuring and encouraging employee groups to become involved in the costsaving overview, he said. In return the unions had pledged to co-operate on health effectiveness studies, which it believed were necessary to come up with real cost savings. “The board knows how much it spends each year, but it does not know how much it costs to run Queen Mary Hospital or Princess Margaret, or if it closes Queen Mary, whether it will save money or make money it could spend elsewhere,” said Mr McKenzie. The board’s expenditure reduction task force proposals had been “slash and bum” options which were not acceptable, he said. “It’s not just $3O million that would be cut, but a cashflow for the commun-

ity by way of wages, and goods and services that the board buys. “Cutting that would have a domino effect on the community’s economy.” Health effectiveness studies were a positive step to cost saving, but the union was not prepared to be “swamped” with requests for hundreds of studies, as had happened in Southland, said Mr McKenzie. “The board also does not know whether the options to privatise services or reallocate them would just see money going out of the left-hand health vote into the right-hand social welfare vote. “There is no proof that privatising geriatric services will be cheaper for the public. It certainly won’t be cheaper for the patients.” The board’s general manager, Mr Ron Parker, said the board planned two public meetings to discuss the expenditure reduction task force options. The first meeting will be held on August 7, at -3 p.m., in the Knox Church Hall in Bealey Avenue. Another meeting will be held on August 8, at 7.30 p.m., at Aranui High School. A telephone hotline has been set up by the board to answer queries. The number is 640-460, extension 8015. Community groups are also holding public meetings including the Templeton Hospital Parents’ Association, which will meet at the hospital today at 2 p.m.