Some Southland District Health Board members yesterday
criticised board communication over the proposed changes to
services for the elderly, saying it had caused unnecessary
anxiety.
Neville Cook told the board meeting in Invercargill the Otago
and Southland boards' disability support advisory committee
he chairs had been stressing the need for good communication
around the matter for some months.
There had been confusion over what was happening, with some
people waiting for letters advising them about their future
service and it was like "a big black cloud" hanging over
them.
This had left a gap "for a lot of misinformation".
The board needed to learn from the experience and be more
conscious of the need to communicate clearly and in a timely
manner when making changes, he said.
Member Kaye Crowther said members had not been kept informed
so they could address any issues which came up in the
community.
Regional planning and funding general manager David Chrisp
said he accepted communications could have been better.
Boards' chief executive Brian Rousseau said in future the
boards would have to buy space in newspapers because although
information had been put out to the media, it had been used
selectively and the full story not provided.
Deputy chairwoman Susie Johnstone said board members needed
to remember that while none of them felt comfortable reducing
services to the elderly, the boards were providing these
services at a level above that funded.
"If you are over-providing in one area, you must, by default,
be under-providing somewhere else."
At the beginning of the meeting, a deputation critical of the
planned cuts to housework support drew applause from the
public gallery.
Former Labour MP Lesley Soper called for the policy to be
reversed and Grey Power president Geoff Piercy said the board
was looking for savings in the wrong place.
He suggested the board could reduce its administration and
provide home support services itself rather than contract
them out.
- elspeth.mclean@odt.co.nz
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