Lower deficits for district health boards

1.00pm

The combined deficit of the 21 district health boards dropped by two-thirds in the year to June, figures released today by Statistics New Zealand show.

The deficit was $58.2 million, $111.4 million down on the $169.6 million deficit recorded in the June 2003 year, SNZ said in a statement.

The latest figure was also $229 million lower than the June 2002 year deficit.

Total revenue for the boards in the June 2004 year rose to $7.5 billion. Funding from the Ministry of Health increased by $875.9 million -- 16.6 per cent -- to $6.15 billion, compared with the June 2003 year.

Total DHB expenses in the June 2004 year were $7.56 billion. The largest component was the direct provision of public hospital and health services (HHS), at $4.51 billion, which was 5.1 per cent higher.

The key HHS expense item, employee costs, was up 5.3 per cent to $2.77 billion, SNZ said.

Spending on additions to fixed assets was down 11.9 per cent to $387.2 million.

For the June 2004 quarter the combined DHB deficit was $0.5 million. Total DHB revenue was up $104.3 million in the quarter to nearly $2 billion. Expenses were up $91.3 million in the quarter, also to nearly $2 billion.

- NZPA