Health board has $8.4m to spend

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board has an $8.4 million windfall to spend.

Most of the money came from the Ministry of Health before the end of the financial year and the rest resulted from careful budgeting, said the board's chief executive Ron Dunham.

He described the surplus yesterday as "most encouraging". The board would seek approval to use it for extra health services and capital works.

One project that could benefit is a $2 million helipad, a new carpark and a lift below Tauranga Hospital on land at the corner of 17th Avenue and Clarke St.

It is the first stage of a $110 million redevelopment planned for the next five years and could be ready by Christmas.

The lift will carry air ambulance and emergency patients uphill to the hospital. The parking lot, mainly for staff use, is needed to free land on the Cameron Rd hospital campus for other works the Government approved earlier this year.

Existing buildings will be upgraded and new wards, theatres, an emergency department, maternity unit and other facilities are to be built to cope with the Western Bay of Plenty's growing population.

Priorities had still to be set, but Mr Dunham said the money might also go towards implementing a regional diabetes strategy, an independence programme for care of the elderly, extra palliative care beds in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, enhanced cardio-respiratory rehabilitation, more community dental services, and primary care mental health initiatives.

"The Bay of Plenty is moving toward a level of funding more equitable to our population and demography," Mr Dunham said.

"This gradual increase in revenue will go toward improving the range and volume of health services in the district."

However, costs would still need to be tightly controlled.

"There's never enough money to go around and do everything we would like."