The Mataura Licensing Trust’s (MLT) donation of $60,000 to an Invercargill dementia facility has Gore Health calling for transparency in its decision-making.
However, MLT president Horace McAuley and general manager Mark Paterson have defended the decision.
The 2024-25 financial report, released late last month, showed a $60,000 donation to Hawthorndale Care Village, a dementia village in Invercargill.
The money was to allow the "Dutch-style" village, which allows dementia patients a level of autonomy under supervision, to build a mock tool shed for the residents to use.
Gore and Districts Health Inc society chairwoman Kylie Fisken called the decision "confusing".
Mrs Fisken said both she and Gore Health chief executive Karl Metzler met Mr McAuley and Mr Paterson early last year.
"We were told by the MLT there was no money for our local hospital, and yet a facility outside the area received a large amount of funding," she said.
Now Mrs Fisken is calling for the MLT to explain their criteria for funding, and what the hospital needed to qualify as a beneficiary for funding, after two years of nothing.
"We were told there was no money. The things we could do with $60,000 in terms of providing quality healthcare for the Gore district," she said.
MLT president Horace McAuley said he believed the organisation and MLT had had a great relationship throughout the years.
He was unsure of a meeting between the two parties, but noted multiple donations throughout the years to Gore Health when it had applied for funding.
MLT funded many health organisations around Southland, and the Hawthorndale Care Village was not just for Invercargill, but Southland in general, Mr McAuley said.
Hawthorndale, when contacted by The Ensign, stated it was not strictly an Invercargill facility and had residents from the Gore district.
The funding for the facility was from The Trusts Community Foundation, which uses funds generated from gaming machines.
Mr McAuley said the only funding the licensing trust could give was through the application process.
Mr Metzler said a potential measure could be, instead of organisations applying for funding and hoping, the MLT could inform the community about how much funding was available.
"I just think there’s a better process around doing it, because right now it doesn’t feel very transparent, the way it works," he said.
Mr Metzler said Gore Health had only received around $9000 for the past 10 years, and his criticism was about the system, not any place in particular.
"It’s about how do we work together, as two community-owned entities who are absolutely vital to this community, to better thrive and survive?
"I guess a more proactive, transparent way, which works well for the people of this community, that’s what I’m interested in," he said.