A review of rural Otago and Southland hospitals shows "clear inconsistencies" in how the district health boards are funding services across the regions, Otago and Southland DHBs planning and funding manager David Chrisp says.
Otago and Southland district health boards are conducting a joint review of hospital services in the two regions.
It is for a South Island-wide review involving the six district health boards to help plan for long-term health services.
The southern review focuses on rural hospitals including Oamaru, Gore, Balclutha, Queenstown and Dunstan, but also includes Dunedin and Invercargill base hospitals.
Mr Chrisp said two stages of the four-stage review looked at what services rural hospitals were able to provide and how many patients were accessing rural hospital services.
A draft report was presented to rural hospital managers the week before last.
The final report would be released this week.
The review was needed to better understand and compare the levels of service across the regions, Mr Chrisp said.
"It shows clear inconsistence in how the DHBs are funding things around the region."
The report would be a useful starting point in planning for the next 15 to 20 years.
Stages three and four would look for innovative ways to meet demand, rather than just adding beds and continuing with what was already being done.
Hospitals needed to be able to meet the needs of an ageing population.
Queenstown's in particular needed to cater for the resort's rapidly growing population, he said.
Plans for a private hospital at Frankton are on hold pending the review.
Southern Cross Hospital, Skin Institute Queenstown (formerly Clinic QT), the Queenstown Medical Centre and Remarkables Park Ltd were granted resource consent in March for a hospital and medical centre, including four operating theatres, a day surgery unit, recovery rooms and an accident and emergency centre.
