Dunstan Hospital has been forced to reduce some patient services in the wake of a projected funding shortfall of up to $200,000 in the 2009/10 financial year.
Central Otago Health Services Ltd (COHSL) chairman Russell McGeorge, in a newsletter to the community, said the projected deficit was ‘‘unsustainable on a business-asusual basis.''
‘‘We must make cuts to our services to maintain the financial viability of the hospital.''
General manager Carol Horgan yesterday said people would notice reductions in the level of community physiotherapy and disability homesupport services provided.
‘‘The level-of-need threshold [for these services] will be raised,'' Dr Horgan said.
A 20 per cent reduction in outpatient clinics had also been signalled but the hospital was working with Otago District Health Board (ODHB) to try to minimise this, she said.
In the newsletter, Mr McGeorge said the shortfall was the result of Government policy requiring the ODHB to eliminate its operating deficit during the next two years.
One ODHB cost-cutting measures was to cap funding for rural hospitals in Otago at last year's level, which for Dunstan was $7.3 million.
Mr McGeorge said this was ‘‘particularly difficult'' for Dunstan Hospital because it served an area that had experienced high population growth - estimated at 13 per cent during the past four years. The hospital had high occupancy and use rates because of this growth, the area's high number of senior citizens and its remoteness from Dunedin.
Dunstan had only received inflation adjustments in the past four years, he said.
Added to the problem was the fact the ODHB recently advised it would charge more for specialist outpatient services provided at Dunstan hospital by ODHB employees.
‘‘Paying these charges [which have increased by 50 per cent over the last two years] will require a 20 per cent reduction in outpatient clinics at Dunstan,'' Mr McGeorge said.
COHSL was ‘‘exploring all possible avenues'' to avoid the charges and maintain clinics at as close as possible to their present level, as they were an essential service for a rural area, he said.
ODHB planning and funding regional general manager David Chrisp said yesterday the board was only recovering its costs with the charges, which it had agreed to defer until October 1.
The board was ‘‘open'' to COHSL contracting visiting clinicians independently if that reduced costs and was working with COSHL on future funding to take account of changing demographics, Mr Chrisp said.
In a written statement to The News, Health Minister Tony Ryall said the ODHB would receive an extra $18 million in government funding this financial year.
‘‘We have asked all District Health Boards to start working towards living within their means but recognise that the way they have been operating with large deficits cannot be fixed overnight, so we are giving the DHBs several years to try and balance the books.''
- Jenny Collier.
