Government Must Up Funding

“Health Cuts Hurt believes the Government needs to step in to properly fund the CDHB which is facing annual deficits of $15m and more cuts to waiting lists on the 4 August,” Chairperson of Health Cuts Hurt, Eleanor Carter said today.

She was commenting on an Open Letter to the People of Canterbury in today’s Press newspaper. The letter states that the CDHB has “overpromised on what it can provide.” The open letter signed by eight different health groups makes no reference to the underlying reason for the greater effect of the cuts in the CDHB.

“Health Cuts Hurt was set up three years ago by concerned people in Canterbury when it became clear how unfair and arbitrary the Ministry of Health’s new population based funding model was for a Health Board like Canterbury,” said Eleanor Carter. “Cantabrians are getting sick of hearing that based on some arbitrary and outdated funding formula, the region was previously overfunded and therefore we need to take our medicine and accept these cuts.”

“The Board is ultimately being forced to make these cuts for the same reason it has been forced to sell large parts of Hillmorton Hospital’s grounds,” said Eleanor Carter. “Ideally, the letters to the patients who are to be cut from the waiting lists should be counter signed by the local Government MPs.”

“The CDHB is now openly admitting that people have to be sicker now to get an operation than previously,” said Eleanor Carter. “Our group calls on the Government to step in and fully fund the Canterbury Health Board.”

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