No word on health services report

The Ministry of Health says it will take into account feedback from Queenstown residents when making decisions about the future of health services in the Wakatipu, but gave no indication on when those decisions would be made.

Last March, the ministry said tenders had closed for an independent study into the delivery of services at Lakes District Hospital, and said the feasibility study was due in late May. The study looks at the possibility of removing Lakes District Hospital from the direct control of the health board and into a community health trust.

The Otago Daily Times has been seeking the report, prepared by Sapere Research Group, since July.

An Official Information Act request, filed by the ODT, was declined by the ministry in December.

National Health Board acting director Michael Hundleby said that was ‘‘to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions'' between stakeholders.

Yesterday, the paper sought an update on the report's progress from Ministry of Health.

Questions included if the report had been finalised and if not, when it would be; if the content of the report would be made public; and if the DHB had seen the draft version.

In a statement, a spokesman said the report was ‘‘being considered by stakeholders'' and ‘‘will be released in due course''.

‘‘Sapere engaged with the DHB in drafting the report,'' the statement said.

On Monday representatives from the health board were in Queenstown as part of its ‘‘listening sessions'', attended by 27 people in the resort and five at a Wanaka session held earlier in the day.

Consultant Tim Keogh had been flown in from London to run the listening sessions and had also taught the board the ‘‘listening skills'' required to run sessions in his absence.

Mr Keogh will return to Dunedin next month to show the board's leadership team the initial results from the ‘‘In Your Shoes'' sessions, which also includes a detailed survey.

He will also be back in May with the final results, to be released publicly.

In Queenstown, DHB commissioner Kathy Grant and deputy commissioner Richard Thomson said, when asked, they had not yet seen the Sapere report.‘‘Whether we ultimately do or don't [see the report], that report is primarily ... to look around ownership structures,'' Mr Thomson said.

‘‘At the end of the day, what we're focused on at the moment is what we're actually doing and how we do it, that problem won't change, regardless.

‘‘I don't mean it [the report] is a distraction in the sense it's not important, but it's not our focus.''

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