The Government has said it wants to see more clinical leadership in health boards, but Otago District Health Board chief medical officer Richard Bunton asked why clinical staff would want to take on more responsibility for services and budgets, when they had no input into planning of those services.
Without any input they were being handed "a fait accompli", Mr Bunton told the recent hospital advisory committee meeting.
Senior medical staff had much knowledge about services and there were advantages when they were actively involved in the planning and funding process of a new service.
Clinicians were also frustrated at the way the board contracted health services. The system did not allow integration between community and hospital services, he said.
Clinicians had been telling him they could see "significant opportunities" to improve efficiency and make savings, which could not be realised under the current system.
One example was older people's health, where services could be far more holistic, but when clinicians tried to make changes it was impossible, as various aspects of the service were contracted to different providers and all ran for different lengths of time.
Questions from and discussion by committee members about Mr Bunton's comments were delayed until the part of the meeting which was closed to the public.
Committee chairman Richard Thomson said after the meeting Mr Bunton's comments had "some relevance" to a confidential report in the closed session.
As the meeting was running behind time, it made more sense to have any discussion then. Mr Thomson said he could not divulge if there was any outcome to those discussions.
