The Christchurch earthquake could have a huge financial impact on Southern District Health Board services, Paul Menzies says.
Before the earthquake, the board's finances were showing some improvement, with the board finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones forecasting it could reduce its planned $15 million deficit by almost $5 million by the end of the year.
At the end of January, the board had a $1.4 million deficit, ahead of what was expected at that stage by $3.5 million.
Mr Menzies, who chairs the board's hospitals advisory committee, told its meeting on Tuesday it was great the health system was robust enough to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake.
He praised the efforts of all concerned.
Board incident controller Leanne Samuel indicated it was difficult to know what the long-term effects on services would be as it was not known how long some families would remain in the southern area.
However, there were at least 1200 extra primary school children enrolled across the region, more than 500 tertiary students and up to 80 aged-care patients whose needs would have to catered for.
Wherever possible, re- located mental health and aged-care patients had been accommodated close to family members.
General practitioners were already seeing Cantabrians presenting with anxiety and other conditions related to an event involving significant trauma, she said.
The board was coping at this stage and maintaining a watching brief to assess the future impact on all services.
Elective surgery is one of the areas where the board is not yet sure how much support it will be required to give.
It was estimated 60,000 people had left Christchurch after the earthquake and probably a substantial number had come to the southern region, Mrs Samuel said.
