The plan for two primary health organisations in Otago-Southland is "nutty" and the Southland District Health Board should reconsider its stance on the matter, Dr Hans Raetz, of Queenstown, says.
Dr Raetz, who is the executive director and project manager of Queenstown Medical Centre, said those at the centre would be going with the Otago PHO rather than the Southland one if the proposal goes ahead as planned.
The centre represented about 80% of general practitioners in the Queenstown area, about 19 doctors, he said.
Before last week's Southland District Health Board vote on the issue, the centre had made it clear that it was not convinced a Southland PHO centred on and dominated by Invercargill would be of any benefit to its population.
Past experience with the Southland District Health Board had not been "entirely positive", he said.
Asked whether he was concerned at the possible merger of the Otago and Southland boards, Dr Raetz said he would be "jumping up and down with joy", but it was not clear how long any such process might take.
He was baffled by the Southland board PHO decision which did not appear to take into account the message from the Government that providers had to be taking charge of the system and driving change.
Doctors had made it clear that most of them wanted one PHO for the two areas, but that was ignored, he said.
The centre is part of the Wakatipu PHO which aligned itself with a separate Southland PHO rather than an Otago-Southland one.
Running the risk of having one small PHO and one large one was not the way to drive change.
The two boards announced the decision last Thursday to go ahead with a two-PHO proposal after Otago voted for one PHO and Southland for two.
Southland chairman Paul Menzies could not be reached for comment last night.
Otago chairman Errol Millar said he was not surprised to hear of the Queenstown Medical Centre's planned move.
Practitioners had the right to choose where they went and this was " nature taking its course".
He was of the view that ultimately the area would end up with one PHO.
South Link Health executive director Prof Murray Tilyard was not able to be reached for comment last night.
South Link Health is an independent practitioners agency, acting on behalf of many general practices. e
