Public/Private Funding a Trap for Public Hospitals
 
West Coast DHB spokesman Wayne Turp’s dismissal of Dr Ruth Spearing’s condemnation of the proposed public-private partnership (PPP) funding for re-building Buller Hospital typifies the arrogant “we-know-everything” approach of the corporate regime which has taken a stranglehold on the public health system in the past two decades, according to DSC health spokesman David Tranter.
 
“This latest example of West Coast health bureaucrats’ contempt for the views of health professionals is all too typical of their approach which, over many years, has seen a succession of dedicated health professionals leaving the Coast when their concerns over patient care and safety were rejected by management” Mr Tranter said.
 
“As chairwoman of Canterbury Hospital’s Medical Staff Association, Dr Spearing is obviously well-placed to comment on these matters from the standpoint of those who view the health system from the real health workplace and not from the position of managers in bureaucratic ivory towers.
 
“Mr. Turp’s views trivialise very real concerns which have been widely expressed about the PPP funding system for many years. Even a cursory examination of relevant Internet sites reveals a plethora of criticisms of PPP funding.
 
“For example, a report in Wikipaedia cites the U.K. experience of public-private funding: “…it has since been found that many programs ran dramatically over budget and have not presented as value for money for the taxpayer”. Wikipaedia also cites the Australian Council of Trade Unions concerns over PPPs as not being the best means of maximising “social and economic value to the Australian community”.
 
“Mr. Turp’s observations on the cost of building facilities under a PPP arrangement ignore that if the facility is built from the public purse it will cost between 2.6 and 4.1 percent interest (figures obtained from Tony Ryall this year) - bad enough in itself when it could be financed at far less through the Reserve Bank” said Mr. Tranter.
 
“However, as Dr. Spearing points out, “In Britain, PPPs were used to hide the debt from public sector accounts by claiming it had been transferred to the private sector, whereas it did nothing of the sort…...It remained a public debt which taxpayers were paying off at a high rate of interest – said to be 12 to 15 percent”.
 
“Yet according to Mr Turp, “The amount returned to a landlord/investor was likely to be similar to the amount returned to the state if the building were Crown funded”.
 
“The board should tell the public which private investors are going to provide funding at a return of 2.6 to 4.1 percent” Mr. Tranter said.
 
“Looming over this situation is that the Christchurch-controlled West Coast board is conducting all significant discussions in committee and is proposing to replace Grey Hospital wards with single and double en-suite rooms - an arrangement which has no other logical explanation than to take private patients who will, of course, queue-jump those who cannot afford to pay.
 
“Most revealing of all in Mr Turps’ comments is his statement, “Buller Health leasing a building maintained by an independent landlord would be no different to the situation of most other government departments”. Only a bureaucrat lacking all understanding of the basis upon which dedicated health professionals work in hospitals could allege that a hospital is, “no different to the situation of most other government departments”. By that statement alone Mr Turp reveals the fundamentally flawed approach of managers who either don’t know what they are talking about or who are speaking to an ideological agenda dictated by their political masters” Mr. Tranter said.
 
“In either case the Minister of Health should come clean over exactly what is being set up behind closed doors for West Coast health services” concluded Mr Tranter.
 

ENDS

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