Support For District Health Board Decision

The Wakatipu Health Reference Group is backing the Southern District Health Board’s decision to take the lead role in the location of a new CT scanner for the region, group chairperson and Queenstown Lakes District mayor Vanessa van Uden said today (Tuesday).

Whether to locate the scanner at Lakes District Hospital, Frankton or Dunstan Hospital, Clyde was originally left for the two communities to agree.

Following feedback however, the SDHB decided that it would take the decision after input from the Wakatipu Health Reference Group and Central Otago Health Services Ltd, as well as wider consultation with the regions’ hospital specialists and GPs.

SDHB finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones told the Wakatipu Health Reference Group today that the board would consider district-wide planning and best use as it put together a business case which would look at sites, funding and patient numbers.

He said a meeting with members of the region’s medical community was already in the planning stages.

Mayor van Uden said while the Wakatipu reference group would not be preparing the business case itself, it would be carefully reviewing the District Health Board’s and was looking forward to seeing what arose from the planned meeting with the clinicians.

“We agree with the SDHB’s decision to involve hospital specialists and GPs from both areasin the discussions around developing a business case for a CT scanner,” she said. 

It was not appropriate for the decision to be treated as a campaign or an emotive contest when it needed to based entirely on needs and fact.

“A CT scanner is part of the bigger picture in how we access health services locally and we need to be concentrated on what’s best for the patients in all our communities across the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago Districts.”

Mayor van Uden said the decision on a site was just one part of the equation and both communities needed to be aware that funding for its purchase and operating costs would need to be found if full funding was unavailable from the SDHB.

The reference group also today asked and received assurances from Mr Mackway-Jones that the SDHB remained committed to implementing the National Health Panel recommendations about health service provision in the Wakatipu.

All the recommendations would need to be considered in the context of wider regional health planning, he told the group.