“Time For Cup Of Tea On Proposed DHB Merger”

“Time For Cup Of Tea On Proposed Otago-Southland DHB Merger”

“The Southland DHB needs to take time out for a cup of tea in order to seriously consider issues raised in the increasing opposition from Southland senior doctors and nurses over the proposed merger with Otago DHB,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. Mr Powell was commenting on the Southland meeting this Thursday over whether to support the merger. The final decision rests with the Minister of Health.

“As the union representing senior doctors in both DHBs we do not have a position on whether the DHBs should merge except that it should only proceed if there is good support from the health professional workforce in both DHBs. This is clearly not the case in Southland.”

“Improving the clinical service relationships between Otago and Southland is much more important than a structural merger. More work needs to be done to first ensure there are strong collaborative clinical foundations that will prevent the risks of running down services in Southland from happening. Structure should follow clinical practices and relationships, not the other way around.”

“Furthermore, there is a particularly bad relationship between senior management at Southland and senior doctors on the other. This needs to be sorted before any merger should proceed. Superimposing a new structure on top of existing problems will only make those problems harder to resolve, not easier.”

“The Southland Board Chair is wrong when he says that there has been consultation over the merger for some years. What he is referring to is discussions over closer collaboration between the two DHBs, which we support. This is also occurring among other DHBs. But it is not the same thing as merging the two organisations. The consultation period has been conducted over a very short period of time and at the time of the year most difficult, the January ‘shut-down’.”

“The two DHBs want to have the decision made quickly to avoid another round of board elections next year. This is understandable but not a good enough reason to rush a decision about which there are so many serious concerns. It is better to get it right that do it quickly” concluded Mr Powell.

ENDS

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