Assessment services assessed

Needs assessment staff in Dunedin were briefed yesterday on changes to the way elderly people are assessed for housework help.

The Southland and Otago District Health Boards say they must cut some housekeeping services provided to elderly people in a bid to save money.

The boards say they are providing more community care than the national average, and more than is provided for by the population-based funding model they work under.

The matter was discussed in the public-excluded session of the boards' joint disability support advisory committee meeting yesterday.

Otago and Southland district health boards planning and funding general manager David Chrisp said after the meeting the item was discussed behind closed doors as the boards did not want to pre-empt yesterday's meeting with needs assessment staff.

He did not want staff to hear about the proposals before they were briefed by management.

Mr Chrisp said management needed more time before making a public statement.

ODHB chairman Errol Millar, addressing the boards' financial situation at yesterday's committee meeting, said no financial stone was being left unturned in the effort to prune the budget deficit.

Neither board could keep "spluttering" along in the current fashion, or the "receivers" would be called in in the form of national health officials to sort out the situation.

It was vital the boards maintained control of their financial destiny, he said.

-Eileen Goodwin