Southland DHB Decision On Merger

Southland DHB Decision On Merger

Southland District Health Board (DHB) has voted in favour of merging with Otago DHB to create a single DHB across the Otago Southland region and will now forward its recommendation to the Minister of Health for a final decision.

Southland District Health Board members voted seven to three in favour of the merger at their board meeting held in Invercargill this afternoon. Otago DHB board members voted unanimously in favour of a merger at their meeting last week.

Southland DHB Board Chairman Paul Menzies said the consultation process had been a democratic one and all views and concerns raised had been considered with great care. “We are firmly of the view that the future lies in one board, Mr Menzies said. “We refuse to let the divisions that have arisen in the past define our future.”

In order to address the recent concerns of some senior medical staff and nursing staff at Southland, the original recommendations from management were modified at the Otago DHB Board meeting last week to include adding the principles and goals of the regional clinical service vision and stating the intent was to ensure sustainable clinical service delivery at Southland Hospital.

Other recommendations included that the Minster request the Governor General, by Order in Council, to divide the proposed Southern DHB geographical area into two constituencies, namely;

• The current Southland DHB boundary
• The current Otago DHB boundary

The boards also recommend that the Minister gives careful consideration to the available options for governance representation when making Ministerial appointments to the Board to ensure fair representation.

Next Steps

Both DHB recommendations are now to be sent to the Minister of Health for his consideration.

The Minister is expected to make his decision by 18 February as to whether the two boards should merge, and then pending his decision, Cabinet approval would be needed.

Subject to legislative decisions and actions, a potential start date for a new DHB could be 30 April 2010 and this short timeframe is necessary because of the DHB election cycle.

What happens to existing DHB staff contracts if the Merger is to proceed?

Many of you will remember the legislative process that occurred when DHBs were created on 1 January 2001. The Health Sector (Transfers) Act (1993) is the legislative vehicle used to transfer staff employment, other contractual arrangements and existing DHB assets and liabilities into the proposed new DHB entity. All this should be seamless and there will be no changes to the terms and conditions of any existing staff contracts as a result of the merger of the two DHBs into one, other than the name of the employer.

Planning for the possible merger

Given the short timeframes, a technical steering group is to be established to oversee various workstreams that would be required if the merger is to go ahead. Although clearly this is dependant on the Minister’s decision which he will make based on each of the Otago and Southland Boards’ recommendations. The workstreams will include IT, payroll, human resources and finance and to support any merger to one DHB as there is a large amount of complex work required to enable a smooth transition.

Otago DHB and Southland DHB will be moving towards a one provider-arm structure to support the Regional Clinical Services vision and goals that were consulted on last year.

There are also likely to be further changes ahead as a result of this regardless of whether the merger proceeds or not.

Otago and Southland DHBs’ Regional CEO Brian Rousseau again confirmed after today’s Southland DHB board meeting that appropriate consultation and engagement would occur as this aspect was progressed.

He also acknowledged that this is an unsettling time for staff, however as he had previously indicated through the Regional Clinical Services Concept paper, the intent is to ensure the DHBs focus on:

• Putting the patient first;
• Delivering quality services within the available resources, while maintaining at least national average access;
• Delivering services as close to home as is practically possible;
• For service access to be equitable; and
• For our services to be firstly clinically sustainable, and further, also financially sustainable.

Mr Rousseau also acknowledged the concerns raised via the one DHB consultation process.

“I would like to assure staff and our communities that I will be working hard to address these concerns as we move through the next stages of this merger process,” he said.

ENDS

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