Public Meeting on Wakatipu Health Services Proposal

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Media Release

Thursday, 17 March 2011

Southern DHB Announces Public Meeting on Wakatipu Health Services Proposal

Southern District Health Board (DHB) Chief Executive Officer Brian Rousseau is inviting the Wakatipu community to a public meeting on 6 April to hear the facts about Southern DHB’s proposal for an Integrated Family Health Centre in their community.

At the meeting he will address the false claims recently made by various parties that the area will lose its hospital and that public health services are to be privatised.

“We have always been open and honest about what we are proposing, which is a model of care which best meets the needs of the Wakatipu community, says Mr Rousseau. We are not proposing to do away with hospital services nor are we proposing to privatise them. We want to make them more efficient and more convenient for the public.”

“However with some unfortunate media coverage fed by misrepresentation of our proposal by the Wakatipu Health Trust, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), and public statements made by various opposition political representatives who clearly haven’t read our proposal, I’m not surprised members of the Wakatipu community may be feeling confused or uneasy.”

“We wish to set the record straight and give confidence back to the people of Wakatipu that they will have hospital services, and in fact much improved health services.”

At the meeting, to be held at 7.30pm, 6 April at the City Impact Church in Frankton, Brian Rousseau will outline the proposal to the community and then open the floor to a question and answer session providing the public with an opportunity to raise any concerns they may have.

The DHB’s latest proposal for an IFHC, which was presented to ASMS and Lakes District Hospital staff on 3 March, asks the question ‘Do we bring all the other medical services to the hospital or do we take the hospital to a centre with all the other services?’

The vision of the new centre, supported by the public in the April 2010 consultation, will allow the public to walk into one centre and have access to a wide range of health services including, but not limited to, GPs, nurses, outpatient clinics, x-rays, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other health providers plus under the same roof there will be hospital doctors and hospital beds and a hospital service to cater for those who need hospital level and emergency care. This model of service will make health services mmore efficient and more convenient for the public.

The new centre could be developed on the Lakes District Hospital site, at Remarkables Park or any other suitable site.

At the moment, hospital staff and their union representatives have until 18 March to provide feedback on the proposed new model of care recommendation, as to whether there are any serious professional or clinical concerns that require resolution.

Mr Rousseau urges members of the public to attend the meeting so they can be fully informed and make up their own minds about what is being proposed rather than continuing to be confused by political scaremongering and irresponsible propaganda.

“The District Health Board is in the business of providing fair and equitable public health services to all of its Southern population”, says Mr Rousseau.

“Delivering public health services is our core business - it’s what we are passionate about. We want to deliver more and better services to the people of the Wakatipu, not less.”

The public meeting will be held at 7.30pm, 6 April at the City Impact Church, 3 Hansen Road, Frankton.

To find out more about our proposal please visit Southern DHB’s website at the link www.southerndhb.govt.nz/wakatipuhealthservicesproposal

Copies of the proposal will also be made available at the meeting.

ENDS
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