Hawke's Bay DHB's deficit is projected to soar to $62m, Tukituki's National MP claims. Photo / File
Hawke's Bay DHB's deficit is projected to soar to $62m, Tukituki's National MP claims. Photo / File
National Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule has claimed the Hawke's Bay District Health Board's projected deficit has soared to $62 million, a claim challenged by opposition candidate Anna Lorck and referred to as "confused".
Yule claimed with the aid of a graph, during a Hawke's Bay Today election livestream event, andcalled for a Crown observer to oversee what he said was a "fundamental, rapid deterioration in Hawke's Bay DHB's performance".
Yule claimed at the debate that DHB management had decided not to release the new projected deficit which took into account a "new calculation of holiday pay" until after the election.
Lawrence Yule wants a Crown observer or monitor to look into the Hawke's Bay DHB's financial performance. Photo / File
In response, Tukituki candidate Anna Lorck said the graph didn't show the lack of investment into the hospital during National's term.
"He doesn't understand that the cost he is referring to is the result of 10 years of underpaying staff that was New Zealand-wide, of which nine of these years were under a national government," Lorck said.
"He is making ill-informed and misleading statements that do the health of our region no good.
"We need to focus on life-saving priorities, and greater funding to deliver better health outcomes, not waste oxygen on attacking the DHB finances which are the result of years and years of National government underfunding health in our region coming home to roost."
Labour Party candidate for Tukituki, Anna Lorck, and Justice Minister Andrew Little pictured campaigning in Hastings.
She said any suggestion of a Crown monitor was Yule "being political because I am on the board, which is shortsighted".
"Hawke's Bay can have total confidence that in the year I have been on the board I have seen absolute commitment by staff, management, new board, to deliver greater access to health care and services," Lorck said.
"It is worth noting that at the end of the first quarter of this financial year, we are on budget."
A Hawke's Bay DHB spokeswoman told Hawke's Bay Today that the interim unaudited deficit on normal operations for HBDHB was $32.3m.
"In addition to this, the DHB made allowances for Covid and Holidays Act costs in its interim result," she said.
"Any changes to this will be included in the DHB's audited Annual Report due at the end of the year.
"During the election cycle process, HBDHB cannot comment further."
The $32.3m deficit was reported on in July, in itself a sharp increase on previous years, but not wholly unexpected.
"The DHB has been forecasting publicly that its deficit would be substantially greater than the planned deficit of $12.9m since January, where it signalled at least a $24m deficit," a DHB spokeswoman said at the time.
"The DHB has had a number of issues that affected its planned expenditure, including continued and sustained pressure on hospital-level care that did not let up over the summer months, as it had in previous years.
"Growth in both patient volumes and complexity of the services required to care for older people were also significant contributors."
The DHB was also quick off the mark to take-up national investments in new drugs, which meant it had a higher proportion of pharmaceutical costs than it had planned, she said.
"The demands of patients who presented with acute and life-threatening injuries and medical conditions meant less elective (planned care) operations were able to be delivered," the spokeswoman said.
"This saw $4m less income than expected, for electives, from the Ministry of Health."
At the time Yule also called for an independent review into the DHB's financial performance.
He said a deficit like this was causing surgeries to be delayed and should not be accepted by the Government.
