A precedent-setting investment partnership in Queenstown's ageing Lakes District Hospital is being advocated by the Government, potentially with health insurer Southern Cross or Ngai Tahu.
Finance Minister Bill English, in Queenstown yesterday for a Queenstown Chamber of Commerce function, confirmed to the Otago Daily Times that he wanted "negotiations under way" within eight to 12 weeks for a "public-private partnership" deal for Lakes District Hospital.
Such partnerships are popular in Australia for funding roading projects, and are also used in the country's health sector.
"The fit is obvious in Queenstown. It has seemed obvious for some time. It's no secret Southern Cross have shown interest in health provision in the area," Mr English said late yesterday.
Ngai Tahu had also "shown some interest" in Wakatipu health provision, with Mr English noting the iwi was already a landlord for police and court agencies.
Health provision at the hospital has been under scrutiny for some time, with some bitterness emerging late last year when the Southland District Health Board revoked a promise to add two long-term residential care beds to the existing six.
Despite population growth of almost 35% in Queenstown in recent years, the hospital has been funded for only six beds for the elderly during the past 20 years and distressed elderly local residents have had to leave families and go to Dunedin or Invercargill for care.
Mr English emphasised the hospital would not benefit from any perceived "lolly scramble" resulting from the pending $4.5 billion increase in Government infrastructure spending, but it could benefit from a public-private partnership model, which he had been investigating for several months.
There was "no rule of thumb" on the percentage of shareholding that could possibly be offered at this stage in a partnership involving the Lakes District Hospital, he said.
When asked, Mr English said he understood a public-private partnership with a non-government organisation would set a precedent, although there were already many community-owned publicly funded health services throughout the country.
The minister, who held the health portfolio in earlier governments, told the audience of more than 80 at the chamber luncheon "there could be a public-private mix of capital and revenue" for the hospital.
