Health services at Oamaru Hospital will be significantly downgraded if the Southern District Health Board cuts its funding by 5%.
That warning has come from Waitaki District Health Services Ltd chairman of directors, George Berry, who also said yesterday it was opposed to any cut after already effectively reducing expenditure.
He vowed everything possible would be done to preserve and enhance existing health services in the district.
Waitaki District Health Services, wholly-owned by the Waitaki District Council, provides health services for the Waitaki district under a contract with the Southern District Health Board (SDHB).
It owns and operates Oamaru Hospital.
SDHB wants to make 5% cuts across the board to reduce a growing deficit, projected to be $27 million this financial year and $42 million in 2015-16.
It is expected to make a formal funding offer to rural hospitals, including Oamaru, by the end of this month.
''A 5% cut (based on 2014-15 expenditure) to current base funding and other future contracting intentions for rural hospitals will result in a significant downgrade of health services to rural communities,'' Mr Berry said.
SDHB should be addressing areas where the deficits lay and not penalise rural hospital providers who were living within their means.
In February, Mr Berry was worried about future SDHB funding for Oamaru Hospital, suggesting it might be time for the community to discuss splitting from the Southern board and joining the South Canterbury District Health Board .
He said yesterday all alternatives would be considered if Oamaru Hospital faced ''a significant reductions in services'', but would not comment if that now meant looking north to the South Canterbury board.
Negotiations were continuing with the SDHB in an attempt to increase funding, after a nil increase last year and small increases the two previous years.
With increasing inflation, wages and costs, this had already effectively reduced funding.
''These have been managed without recognition of what has already been done to help - we do not have the ability to further reduce costs without reducing services,'' he said.
At this stage specific services affected in the Waitaki district had not been identified.
Rural hospitals had expressed concern at the SDHB's provider (funding) arm's continuing failure to address its own increasing deficits over the past three years, and a lack of confidence in an ability to improve its financial position in the future.
''Planning and funding should be addressing where deficits lie, and not penalise rural hospital providers who are living within their means,'' Mr Berry said.
The deteriorating financial position of the SDHB, its clear inability to fund rural hospitals and a clear focus on drawing back services to Dunedin to survive caused serious concerns for the Waitaki company.
The Southern board is also intending to review radiology rates, set a unit price and volumes for services benchmarked against other district health boards and review the justification for rural premiums.
