Defining deficit not easy: Grant

Kathy Grant
Kathy Grant
Pinning down the exact amount of Southern District Health Board's projected deficit - which could be as high as $42 million - is proving to be difficult because of a lack of resources in the organisation, commissioner Kathy Grant says.

After Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman sacked the board last month, he said he wanted Mrs Grant and her team to figure out the true amount of the deficit, which had ''fluctuated wildly''.

The 2015-16 projection ranged from $30 million to $42 million.

Mrs Grant acknowledged yesterday it was a harder task than expected. Most other health boards would have their financial projections ''done and dusted'' by now, a couple of weeks into the new financial year.

The finance team lacked institutional knowledge because many business analysts had left, and the computing system used for forecasting was outdated.

The problems stemmed from schemes associated with the defunct Health Benefits Ltd, the controversial entity set up by former health minister Tony Ryall.

A plan to centralise business analysts in Auckland - which created a long period of uncertainty for staff in Dunedin - has been abandoned. A big-ticket shared computing scheme is still on the table, but is delayed and will be implemented by HBL's successor entity, New Zealand Health Partnerships.

In the short term, it was not as simple as hiring extra people, because they would not bring institutional knowledge, she said.

Mrs Grant could not say how long it would take to figure out the deficit, but ''we don't want to be engaged in a situation where this matter is still outstanding in six months' time''.

''I would prefer to have this matter dealt with sooner rather than later in order that we can focus our energy and work in relation to some of the next steps.''

The Otago Daily Times asked Dr Coleman if board members had been blamed for shortcomings that were partly outside their control.

A spokeswoman said Dr Coleman was unavailable.

Mrs Grant is still in talks with a clinical person to appoint as her third deputy to join Graham Crombie and Richard Thomson on her team.

She hoped the appointment would be soon: ''It would certainly be helpful for us.''

eileen.goodwin@odt.co.nz

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