The cash-strapped Southern District Health Board has now spent $634,000 on external advice in a bid to improve its performance, and will continue to receive support from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) for some time, it confirmed this week.
The board said this week the scope of PWC's work would be reviewed in the coming months. The business services company was hired in the middle of last year, in the wake of a cost blowout. The $634,000 was for its work up to the end of March.
A Treasury report on the board's financial state released to the Otago Daily Times last month revealed PWC had warned the health board not to push cost-cutting initiatives too hard, because of the risk staff may not support management in embedding the savings.
In the report, the Treasury indicated it was not happy with the $42 million of savings the board identified over three years, saying more was possible.
Cost-cutting included reduced spending on aged residential care, fewer mental health inpatient beds, and subsidising urgent after-hours primary care to reduce pressure on hospitals.
