The Ministry of Health has turned down a Hawke's Bay District Health Board (HBDHB) request for financial support to recover the costs of the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak, reducing its forecasted year end surplus by $1 million.
In its financial report for March 2017, the board said it was hopeful that a forecast surplus of $4.5m would be achievable with the inclusion of support from the Ministry of Health for one-off costs associated with the gastroenteritis outbreak in August last year.
That surplus had now been adjusted from $4.5m to $3.5m following written confirmation of the Ministry's decision not to contribute to the cost of the outbreak.
HBDHB chief executive Kevin Snee said the decision was disappointing, but that he guessed the Ministry was in the position that at any given time it had to make a judgment call on requests of such nature put to it by any of the country's DHBs and weigh up the priority of each case.
"Perhaps the outbreak in Havelock North is seen as yesterday's problem, but I think there is a legitimate argument for providing funding for Hawke's Bay - not least of which being that we do not make many such requests, as we manage our finances very well."