A ‘‘deadlock'' in contract negotiations between Waitaki District Health Services and the Southern District Health Board could be broken after a clinically-led review is completed at Oamaru Hospital in April, the district health board says.
Southern District Health Board (SDHB) executive director planning and funding Sandra Boardman said the SDHB was ‘‘committed to providing good quality health services to the people of Waitaki'' and yet after negotiations with SDHB service providers began over a year ago - with a proposed 5% funding cut as a starting point - Waitaki was the only rural trust that had resisted a new agreement.
‘‘We worked creatively and constructively with a whole range of providers, including all of our rural trusts, apart from Waitaki District Health Services, to see what that [new agreement] could look like,'' she said.
‘‘And for some it was a straight 5% cut in funding; for others it was a lower level of reduction in funding but an increased delivery of activity.
‘‘It was very much dependent on the particular circumstances of an organisation and the community that they served, and we've been trying to work creatively and constructively with Waitaki District Health Services since that time, we've had several meetings with them, but not been able to get any movement at all from the trust.''
On Friday, Waitaki District Health Services (WDHS) announced a 20% bed numbers cut it said was due to the level of funding it received from the SDHB.
Chief executive Robert Gonzales warned more cuts could come and went on to say the emergency department operations were becoming ‘‘untenable'' due to underfunding.
A clinically led joint SDHB-WDHS review of services was also announced on Friday. Yesterday, Mrs Boardman said the review was an important first step in the stalled negotiations.
‘‘That might be the thing that actually breaks the deadlock, so I'm quite positive about that,'' she said.
WDHS chairman of directors George Berry said the trust's situation was ‘‘more difficult'' than other trusts, but agreed the review could benefit the negotiations.
‘‘We can't see any silver bullets, but they might have some great ideas, and of course we'll be receptive to those,'' he said.
‘‘I would hope that the review will lead us to a conclusion that everyone can live with, but we're not in the business of running a service that is going to go broke.
‘‘The difficulty is this, our situation is rather different to the other rural hospitals with which they've been negotiating,'' he said.
‘‘And there hasn't been any willingness from the SDHB to recognise those issues.
‘‘Our problem is that we have reached the level of what we can absorb without a major cutback which would be much more extensive than the reduction to 24 beds than we are now putting in place.''
