Claims Of Hospital Unsustainability False

“Claims Of Hospital Unsustainability False”

“Claims by Southern District Health Board bosses that Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital is clinically and financially unsustainable are false and unfair on the hospital’s highly respected doctors and nurses,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

“Despite claiming that the hospital is clinically unsustainable, no evidence has provided to support this. None was provided at the public meeting last week (6 April). The closest Chief Executive Brian Rousseau has come to provide evidence was to refer to a so-called ‘desk top review’ which was never written up. All that exists is a letter about which was written over three years later, contains no statistical analysis and does not say what Mr Rousseau suggests it says.”

“At the same time the quality of patient care was strongly praised by GPs speaking at the public meeting. Further, Lakes District Hospital has been commended by the professional colleges of general practitioners and emergency medicine specialists, including as being a good place to train younger doctors. If this clinically and professionally well performing hospital is regarded as clinically unsustainable, I would hate to see what a poor performing hospital was like!”

“At the public meeting Mr Rousseau said that the direct costs of running the public hospital had increased by over $2 million from $3.97 million in 2005-6 to $5.99 million in 2009-10, an increase of 51%. This was the evidence he used to support his claim that the hospital is unsustainable.”

“But this is disreputably misleading. On the grounds of patient safety a ‘swing shift’ from late morning to early afternoon was introduced in two stages in which two doctors rather than one were based in the hospital. This was based on a study of peak admissions. First, it was introduced for four days per week. Later it was extended to the whole week. Of course, costs went up because more doctors were employed in the interests of patient safety. But it was a one-off cost investment to improve the safety of patient care.”

“This was an up-front investment to protect safety. It cost extra money to do it but it does not mean that costs increase at the same rate every year. In fact, in the last year he refers to the increase was a mere 2%. The claims of health bosses are based on a misuse of data. This is not good enough.”

“Furthermore, the direct costs of running Lakes District Hospital are around $6 million, less than 1% of the DHB’s total spending (around $800 million). If a 2% increase on less than 1% of DHB spending is financial unsustainable, then I’ll believe in the tooth fairy.”

“Lakes District Hospital is a great asset for Queenstown and the DHB. DHB health bosses should stop treating it as a liability,” concluded Mr Powell.

Ian Powell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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