27 May 2015

Outsourced food won’t be adopted in Hawke’s Bay

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board will not implement Health Benefits Limited Food Services proposal to outsource food services to national company Compass Group, the board said today.

Chair Kevin Atkinson said the Board had gone through a robust consultation process and needed to heed the advice of Hawke’s Bay’s Clinical Council, Consumer Council and Maori Relationship Board, none of which had supported the business case of outsourcing food services from Hawke’s Bay.

Mr Atkinson said the Board had also decided not to accept management’s recommendation to review this decision in a years’ time, following the implementation of outsourced food services at Auckland and Southern DHBs.

The Board believed any financial benefit from the business case would be marginal and the Clinical Council had raised clinical concerns over reheating frozen or chilled food, especially if elderly people reheated Meals on Wheels. There were also concerns raised about the social and environmental impacts to the region if outsourcing food was adopted, he said.

“The impact on the local economy and the excellent relationship we have with the local producers would have been jeopardised. We have heard from some of the smaller food suppliers that they would have had to close their doors and laid off staff if outsourced food was adopted – I can’t support that.

“Anything that has an impact or effect on employment has an effect on health. There were too many negatives and minimal benefits for us to adopt this proposal,” Mr Atkinson said.

The Board would ask management for an internal review of the district health board’s food services costs and delivery across the district including Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay to see if there was any further savings or improvements that could be made through the current service.

“We would also like to see if menus for patients could be co-ordinated more efficiently electronically, and we will be asking for a report back on that as part of this review,” Mr Atkinson said.

Chief executive Kevin Snee said he was comfortable with the Board’s decision and also agreed the business case had marginal financial benefit for Hawke’s Bay which was outweighed by the cost to the local economy, clinical concerns and the loss of jobs.
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