The Southern District Health Board has approved increasing Dunedin Hospital acute theatre time by 35 hours a week, subject to two conditions.
Before the board yesterday was a recommendation from the hospitals' advisory committee that it agree to the extra hours, at an estimated net cost of $419,015.
Before it goes ahead, the board wants to be confident theatre usage is on a par with the national average.
It also wants to know what the financial implications might be.
Money has not been included in the draft budget for the proposal and the board wants to see where the proposal stands in relation to the soon-to-be-completed National Health Board review of the hospital systems and the possible costs of that.
There was long discussion of the issue at the hospitals' advisory committee meeting on Wednesday, but the board voted for the committee's recommendation without further comment yesterday.
The recommendation also noted seven other aspects of the issue of limited access to acute theatre time.
These included the problems and clinical risks associated with insufficient access and that patients and the organisation would benefit if surgery was delivered within ideal times.
In the last 12 months more than 1700 bed nights were used by orthopaedic patients waiting for acute surgery.
Over a year, eliminating these would be the same as having four extra inpatient beds.
The committee recommendation also stated that both short-term and longer-term needs for theatre access had to be considered to plan for future growth in demand.
Chief executive Brian Rousseau had told the committee the amount of acute surgery had gone up considerable over the last four or five years.
Chief operating officer (Otago) said the hospital was having to postpone elective surgery almost daily because of the number of acute patients turning up at the hospital.
Mr Rousseau told the board both Dunedin and Southland hospitals had experienced a very busy June.
Winter ills were "starting to come through" and both hospitals were "certainly under pressure", he said.
• Spending of $306,301 on TrendCare, a software system to improve the way nursing staff are allocated to meet the needs of patients, was approved by the board.
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