Southern District Health Board management this month took issue with the savings assumptions made in the financial analysis of the NHB proposals which resulted from an expert panel review.
DHB finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones told the board meeting he disputed the suggested $800,000 savings in the second year of the proposals.
While detailed costing on the various initiatives in the NHB proposals has yet to be done, the DHB has disagreed with several aspects of the national assumptions, including costs related to the proposed CT scanner, increased outpatient clinics, and palliative care beds.
In response to questions about the scale of the difference between the DHB assumptions and the national board's, he told the meeting the NHB had over-estimated demographic funding by $400,000, something which was "significant".
Asked by the Otago Daily Times if the NHB assumptions were wrong, NHB deputy director Michael Hundleby sent an email which did not appear to directly address this question.
It said both the National Health Board and the Southern board agreed that if there was a strong focus on primary and secondary care integration in the Wakatipu, and greater collaboration with Dunstan, then the services to the public in these areas "can be greatly improved as well as savings made".
The ODT then asked if the NHB was saying its financial analysis was right.
Mr Hundleby forwarded the following:
"As with all costings there is variation depending on what assumptions underpin them, but what's important is that both the DHB and National Health Board recognise that if there is better integration between primary and secondary care, and greater collaboration between Dunstan and Queenstown hospitals, then better services can be provided for the public and savings can be made."
When further questions were posed as to whether any consensus had been reached on the financial assumptions, the NHB asked that the ODT use the earlier response to questions.
In its questions the ODT also referred to Southern board chairman Joe Butterfield's statement that the board would have to pick and choose which of the recommendations of the Wakatipu expert panel it might put into place from the review.
The DHB would have to consider the wider implications of equity across the district.
It also asked whether, in retrospect, the expert review panel's view of the Wakatipu situation was too narrow, both from the funding and equity perspective.
Mr Hundleby said the NHB remained confident in the recommendations regarding the future shape of Wakatipu health services and it "is really good to see that the board is progressing with planning around their implementation".
Later in the response he said the board would be closely monitoring progress to ensure the services to the Wakatipu Basin were improved in line with the panel's recommendations.
Asked if the NHB would be concerned if some aspects of the proposals were not introduced as the NHB might have wanted, Mr Hundleby responded that the national body understood the DHB was working through the recommendations to assess and prioritise actions, which was a normal process, but the NHB would be working closely with the board to ensure the DHB was able to continue "progressing the recommendations that have been made".
