The committee should not just be absorbing information, but thinking of ways it could influence decisions in the sector.
To do that, however, it would need more information, she said in a discussion about the shortage of hospital-level beds in Otago and Southland.
Regional planning and funding general manager David Chrisp said although there was an indication some more modern rest-homes could be interested in converting some beds to hospital-level beds, this was not likely to happen for 18 months to two years.
Committee member Peter Barron said if one of the issues was the funding level for these beds, which was set by the 21 boards, then the committee needed to be working to influence that.
Similarly, workforce issues needed to be addressed.
Member Louise Carr said there could be ways of finding more flexible working arrangements to help overcome the shortage of registered nurses in this area.
It was important for the boards and the community to work together on the problem.
"It's not something which is going to be fixed quickly."
Mr Barron said it was costing the boards an extra $340 a day for each elderly person who was using a public hospital bed rather than a community one.
This was based on a public hospital bed costing about $500 a day compared with the $160 paid for community beds.
Concern was expressed recently to the Otago District Health Board by chief executive Brian Rousseau that the shortage of community hospital-level beds had the potential to affect the amount of elective surgery at Dunedin Hospital because surgical beds could be occupied by the elderly.
The committee asked Mr Chrisp to report on the future requirements for hospital-level beds, where the shortages were, the workforce capability, and to provide more detail on what was happening nationally.
In a report on the use of services for the elderly, Mr Chrisp noted that in Otago, the number of people getting personal care in their homes had been fairly stable for four years, about 1000, but they were getting more hours of care per person, while Southland was giving personal care to an increasing number of people.
Household management services appeared to be increasing more in Southland than Otago, but that could be partly explained because Community and Enliven, two services which catered for about 200 people, were not included in the figures.
About 3200 people receive household management in Otago and about 1700 in Southland.
Mrs Algar asked if the lack of growth in Otago could be related to the availability of carers, because if there were no carers available, people could not access services.
Mr Chrisp said further analysis of both the numbers of people receiving services and the increase in the hours allocated to them was needed.
