Savings in the Southern District Health Board's "funder arm" are helping the DHB carry a budget overrun in services it operates directly, a report to tomorrow's meeting in Invercargill shows.
The DHB expects to finish the year with a deficit close to forecast ($9.2 million; prior forecast: $10 million). How that is happening is quite different from what was budgeted.
The "provider arm" is expected to finish the year with a $3.2 million deficit, rather than an expected $500,000 surplus. A $3.1 million year-to-date blowout in doctors' wages (in-house and locum combined) is the main reason the provider arm forecast has deteriorated.
In contrast, the "funding arm" performed better than budgeted by $4.5 million, although it was still forecast to finish with a $6.5 million deficit.
The main cost savings were below-budget spending on NGO personal health ($2 million), mental health personnel ($1.1 million), NGO mental health spending ($700,000), home-based support ($600,000), pharmaceuticals ($800,000), laboratory testing ($400,000), and Southern PHO unspent funds ($700,000).
Staff not taking annual leave was of concern, the financial report noted. Hopefully, that changed when April's figures were collated, taking Easter into account, the report said.
Plans to support the elderly at home were proving "complex", with a delay implementing electronic needs assessment service InterRai not helping, the report said.
Home-support allocations, which were controversially cut in 2010, were under budget, while spending on rest-homes and hospital-level care were above budget.
Personal-care costs were increasing as more people were supported at home.
Minutes in this week's agenda reveal the DHB spent 40 minutes in open session, and two hours in public-excluded session, at its meeting last month in Queenstown.
In the previous 12 board meetings, from March 2011 to March 2012 (there is no January meeting), the board spent 12 hours deliberating in public, and 32 hours behind closed doors.
