The Southern District Health Board is aware its actions will speak louder than the words it has been listening to over the past week, but yesterday gave the Otago Daily Times an assurance ‘‘we are committed''.
Meanwhile, at least one of the 30 people who attended the ‘‘In Your Shoes'' listening session in Queenstown yesterday said the benefit of the session remained to be seen.
Another five patients met DHB representatives and hospital staff at an earlier session in Wanaka.
In Wanaka, deputy commissioner Richard Thomson said the workshops provided an interesting opportunity to hear about people's experiences.
‘‘At times it has been uplifting, at times dispiriting.
‘‘As you listen to people you become aware of the enormous things that we have got to work through and at other times you hear things and think ‘oh, it's worth getting up today'.''
In Queenstown, DHB commissioner Kathy Grant said it was the first time the board had gone through the process and it was doing so now because ‘‘we take it pretty seriously''.
‘‘Clearly, we will be judged by our actions [and] all I can give you is our assurance that we are committed. We see this, really, as only the start of the process.''
By Friday, nearly 1300 staff, patients and whanau will have participated in 23 listening events across the region.
Another 1980 people completed a detailed survey about their experience.
Former Queenstown Lakes District councillor Kirsty Sharpe attended yesterday's meeting in Queenstown.
Last month the ODT reported Mrs Sharpe's granddaughter, 6-year-old Sofia Sharpe, had to be driven to Southland Hospital twice for new casts after breaking her arm in a fall from monkey bars because Lakes District Hospital's fracture clinic was full.
While yesterday's session was ‘‘well run'' and she felt her concerns had been taken on board, the benefit remained to be seen.
‘‘Often these meetings are full of warm fuzzies and then you see no change in the future ... but the proof in the pudding is, is it acted on later?''
Mr Thomson said the feedback, which posed more questions than answers initially, was at the heart of the DHB's ‘‘Owning our Future'' plan.
‘‘If we look at health systems ... that have been in trouble and suffering, as this DHB has for a long time ... if we address the culture within the organisation, you can often fundamentally rework the way in which we do things.
‘‘At the moment, the risk is we have a management team approach other parts don't buy into.''
Speaking in Dunedin last Friday, consultant Tim Keogh, flown in from London to run the sessions, said the meetings had been positive and he had been struck by a sense of community throughout the region.
Mr Keogh had taught health board staff the listening skills, enabling them to run sessions after he returned to the United Kingdom.
- Additional reporting Eileen Goodwin.
