Waitaki health authorities will lead the implementation of recommendations from a services review made public yesterday, the Southern District Health Board says.
The services review began last autumn after bed numbers were cut at Oamaru Hospital.
Waitaki District Health Services (WDHS) leadership voiced fears of further cuts
as negotiations for a new contract for the 2017-18 financial year begin.
However, in September, talks to renew a contract for health services in the Waitaki district began, and at the time WDHS chairman George Berry said he believed he had ``assurances that adequate funding will be there for the review recommendations to be implemented''.
Mr Berry could not be reached for comment yesterday.
But WDHS chief executive Robert Gonzales said the review recommendation implementation and the contract negotiations remained ``two separate processes''.
``We have got current realities of the services that we provide, and until we get to a point where there is a crossover of the changes into the new model of care, we need to be able to run the services properly,'' he said.
Southern District Health Board executive director of planning and funding Sandra Boardman could not be reached for comment yesterday, but a board press release summarised the recommendations, which included: establishing a ``clinical care hub''; implementing a ``streamlined first response system''; improving processes for post-hospital discharge; increasing specialist outpatient services locally; and developing and maintaining a workforce ``that will meet the needs of future service delivery''.