Originally published as a column in The Southland Times

The serious issues facing the Southern District Health Board continue to mount as the health crisis in our region grows.

Increasing waiting lists for cancer and orthopaedic patients, a shortage of beds, pressure on the emergency department, staff shortages, and a lack of operating theatres, plague the organisation, while at the end of May the budget deficit was $23 million.

I continue to hear from Southlanders who are caught up in the system or are desperate for the surgery that they need.

GP's and surgeons alike tell me they have growing concerns about the welfare of their patients, describing people in chronic and debilitating pain, losing their quality of life while they languish on waiting lists.

SDHB members, at their most recent meeting, talked of developing a long-term plan to improve health services in Southland, but this provides little comfort for those in need right now.

The board has commissioned consultancy company Sapere to develop a site master plan for the hospital, but I’d suggest the board also needs to consult with its staff and patients to be advised of the issues which exist at our hospital.   

The SDHB is also considering an upgrade of its embattled emergency department (ED) in Invercargill.

However, CE Chris Fleming was recently reported as saying he did not want to “over-resource the department, relative to what the demands on the department should be.”

This makes me wonder whether a lack of funding and the board’s limited budget, rather than the future needs of Southland people, will be the rationale behind this upgrade.

Apathy and inaction has plagued Southland Hospital for too long, with many of the current issues relating back to its construction in 2005.

At that time the focus of the build was on cost-cutting, rather than on the construction of a hospital which would meet the future health needs of this province, with relevant census population figures ignored in favour of more conservative data.

Now 16 years later we are in the middle of a health crisis that will be hugely expensive to fix and may simply be too late for some Southlanders.

At just 115 beds and 2.9 theatres per 100,000 people, Southland has nearly 60 percent fewer beds per 100,000 people than neighbouring Otago - and 37 percent less theatre space.

These are significant issues which cannot wait for the board’s long term plan and need to be addressed now.

Southland board members have voiced their concerns about Southland Hospital, saying that they have been working to address issues for 12 months, but their pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears. (fyi: Terry King)

One such board member recently said that conditions at the hospital were a risk to both patient and staff safety. (fyi: Kaye Crowther)

However, they also said that turning the SDHB around was like turning the Titanic.

I would hope that the comparison with the Titanic is inaccurate – because we all know what happened to that ship.