Golden Bay gets restless: Health project’s business case to be presented in April
The interim management group (IMG) of the Integrated Health Project says that it will unveil its complete business presentation in April, heeding strong messages from the Bay to move faster.
“We have set ourselves the challenge of completing the business case by April and taking it to the meetings of the key groups,” said IMG spokesperson Andrew Swanson-Dobbs. “We also need to come back to the Bay and have our public forum.”
Mr Swanson-Dobbs, the CEO of Nelson Bays Primary Health, said that the IMG was aware that there was some disquiet about the integration project and that some of it related to the length of time it had taken.
“Integrating a rest home, a medical practice and a hospital under one roof has proved to be a far more complex beast than we envisaged,” he said. “But we are receiving some overwhelming messages from the Bay telling us to hurry up and get it done.”
Mr Swanson-Dobbs said that, for him, the basic principle of integration remained quite simple and unarguable.
“When I arrived three years ago and met Dr Struan Clark and heard about the project I immediately thought it was a fantastic way for a rural area to address the problem of recruitment and retention of medical staff. The man deserves a medal for his foresight. The IMG believes that when the services are amalgamated under one roof there will be better health outcomes for the patients and a better chance that care can continue to be given in Golden Bay.”
The IMG will be unveiling its business case to the District Health Board, the Golden Bay Medical Centre Trust and the Joan Whiting Trust. The case will include such matters as the location of the integrated facility and the staffing configuration. Mr Swanson-Dobbs said that the current economic climate posed some problems but the IMG remains confident that the funding can be found. The IMG knows of individuals and groups who are standing by with “tens of thousands of dollars” that they have promised towards the project, he said, but the group is under no illusions about the challenges it faces.
“Tony Ryall has said that health isn’t going to get any more money. We’ve all got to live within our means,” Mr Dobbs said. “We have to find a better way of delivering services. In Golden Bay that means bringing services to the front. Whatever money comes into the Bay for health has to go into frontline services first. The business model involves us reconfirming the dollars that come from all the income streams and putting a building we can afford on a site we can afford. There’s no way we’ll design a service we can’t afford now or in the future.”
The IMG hopes that the unveiling of the business case will lead to the key groups endorsing the project.
“We have the opportunity to sit down with the Joan Whiting Trust and the Medical Centre Trust and get their support,” he said. “We want to harness the expertise and knowledge of the different groups in the Bay so that they don’t feel their expertise could be lost to the client group.
“I believe that Struan Clark’s original vision is going to be the model for the future provision of health services in this community. The site, the building and the staff configuration will make this an exciting place to come and work in,” he said.
“But the people need to hold us accountable for our decisions and processes. That’s important. We also need the community’s support to get on and get it done.”
Neil Wilson
