New health centre services to be cut

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 590, 13 June 1995, Page 1

New health centre services to be cut

Waimarino' s new health facility may become a clinic and not the rural health centre promised to the community. This was confirmed yesterday with the release of Good Health W anganui ' s 1 995 - 1998 business plan which aims to cut its expenditure by 18 per cent. "Waimarino ... rural health centre will continue

to provide outpatient clinics in paediatrics, medicine and surgery, community midwifery and homebased professional services," stated GHW chief executive Ron Janes in a press statement. Taihape is to be upgraded to provide a "comprehensive range of inpatient outpatient services to the Ruapehu and Rangitikei regions" including mater-

nity care (antenatal, delivery and post-natal care), inpatient medical/ convalescent care, continuing hospital care for the elderly and disabled people, intermittent care under the respite programme. In short, in-patient care for Waimarino folk will be either at Taihape or Wanganui Base Hospital. Other changes to affect Waimarino and Waiouru people include a plan to "promptly discharge" maternity patients having normal deliveries, No definition of "promptly discharged" is given. For seniors health care, "access criteria will be applied to the assessment and rehabilitation service which will be scaled down to match RHA contracts. The service will provide for continuing and intermittent care and continue with home support management services where contracted". Investigations into contracting support services . such as x-ray, pharmacy and laboratory services are to be carried out. Under 'adult health' GHW will "provide only those services for which if is contracted and paid a

far price". General surgery, orthopaedic and gynaecological waiting list admissions will be at 80 per cent of the 1993-94 level. Ophthalmology and ear, nose and throat waiting list admissions will be at 70 per cent of those levels. The plan will see staff numbers slashed by 246 full-time equivalents over the next three years. Unpopular GHW puts the blame for the cuts squarely on the CRHA. Mr Janes said services have to be slashed to the level the RHA has indicated it will fund. He said the plan, accepted by the ministers of crown health enterprises and finance, aims to take the crown health enterprise out of the governmentimposed 'work-out' modeduetoits difficultfinancial situation. "I cannot deny that the plan will be a hard one for staff and the community to accept," he said. "The fact that we are cutting back when the Turn to Pase 3

Health centre cuts planned

FROMPAGE1 community' s health needs seem to be increasing just does not make sense to many people. But the situation since the health reforms of 1993 is that GHW is just another contractor. We can only do the jobs the RHA give us, and if we do them at a loss we will be shut down." "Since 1 July 1993 theCentralRHAhasbeenresponsiblefor assessing and purchasing the publicly funded health needs of the Wanganui community, The cuts we are now seeing are a reflection of the fact that this community recei ved an above-average level of service in the past and the restrictions are to allow other communities to catch up." He said from GHW's point of view the situation was "bitterly disappointing". Staff and the community should "take heart from the plan, realising that while hard decisions have had to be made, their CHE would soon be able to compete and survive in an increasingly competitive market", said Mr Janes. Six-month consultation Any pan to 'exit' the services would have to go through 'management

of change protocols' which must include consultation with district councils and health professionals, said RHA communications adviser Quentin Bright. The process would involve looking for alternative service providers and if none were found, renegotiation between the RHA and GHW over the provision of the services in question. This process has to be carried out over a period of at least six months, the Bulletin understands. This would mean that the new health centre would have to be set up as planned, and then downgraded at the earliest in January 1996. Fierce fight If the Waimarino services are cut the Regional Health Authority will have a fight on their hands, according to Ruapehu District mayor Garrick Workman. He said the community supported the plan to close the Waimarino Hospital and build a new, modem health centre on the basis of the services that were promised and that if those services were to be withdrawn then the support of the community would be withdrawn.