Editorial: Starship battles not over

Refreshingly, it took only a short time for good sense to prevail. Less than 24 hours, in fact. That was the period between the Auckland District Health Board chairman retorting "you must be joking" to suggestions there should be a rethink of the name Starship and a compromise over the title of the Auckland children's hospital. Henceforth, it will be known as the Starship Children's Department. Clearly, some sharp words from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, most tellingly about the need to listen to what the community was saying, quickly and compellingly concentrated the health board's collective mind.

As with most compromises, however, this is by no means the end of the tale. As the Herald will examine over the next three days, the issues which prompted the health board's doleful name-change decision have yet to be resolved. A power struggle will continue as the board deals with what it sees as the inevitable consequence of the merging of the Starship, Green Lane, National Women's and Auckland Hospitals on one site.

On one level this springs from the Starship's independent source of funding. Inevitably, there will be further friction if the children's hospital's fundraising foundation provides equipment out of kilter with the health board's priorities. The only solution is liaison and co-operation - and a strong dose of the goodwill that should accompany the receipt of such independent funding.

On a more fundamental level, there is tension arising from the health board's intended change of focus from high-tech hospitals to community-based healthcare. The proposed new name, Auckland City Hospital Children's Services, was designed to deter the many parents who, erroneously, bypass their local doctor and take sick children directly to the high-profile Starship. The answer here, however, is not to downgrade Starship but to make community-based children's health facilities equally welcoming.

The dropping of the Starship name could never be a quick fix for either of these problems. There is far more to all this than a gimmicky title. At least now, however, the real issues of an evolving health service will not be obscured.