KEY POINTS:
A secret report suggesting cutting up to 50 doctors at the embattled Capital and Coast District Health Board is the latest blow to strike the beleaguered Wellington Hospital.
It was revealed today that a group of health board managers, Health Ministry officials and external consultants advise reducing the number of doctors and outsourcing some specialties to solve the DHB's financial woes.
It is already under fire after a number of high profile deaths and its chief executive quit yesterday.
A draft of a confidential report leaked to the Dominion Post newspaper said unless urgent action was taken, its deficit was set to balloon to $48.4 million by 2009-10, due in part to the building of the new regional hospital.
Senior doctors said the report was likely to further undermine morale at Wellington Hospital, already reeling from the spate of bad publicity.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell told nzherald.co.nz the report has no relevance to the actual number of doctors needed on the ground.
"It's an artificial calculation. They come to this claim that they believe somewhere between zero and 50 doctor positions are unnecessary and then they've said let's take a mid-point at 25 and make half of them junior doctors and half of them senior doctors," Mr Powell said.
He said the health board cannot afford to cut medical staff with the controversy that has recently hit.
"They've got shortages already. They've been covered up by doctors working excessive hours and this is the frustrating thing, what has this razor gang come up with? A proposal to increase the workload of over-worked doctors," Mr Powell said.
He said the report was discussed last Friday but management was in "disarray". Mr Powell said it is unclear when they will next be able to discuss the report and the DHB's plans.
The health board yesterday defended its record despite its chief executive Margot Mains resigning with immediate effect and politicians clamouring for the board to follow in her footsteps.
The outgoing board held its last meeting yesterday, and chairwoman Judith Aitken praised its stewardship of the capital's health services.
"If I can say one thing about this board, it has been absolutely unshaken in its determination to advance the needs of people who have high health needs," Dr Aitken said.
Dr Aitken's declaration on behalf of the board came on the same day as details of 23 cases of medical mishaps at DHB facilities between 2003 and 2005 were made public, and a day after it was revealed a baby girl died hours after going home - and just hours after her first-time mother had given birth.
Health Minister David Cunliffe has refused to say he has confidence in the board and signalled he will take some action in the coming week to rectify systemic issues within the DHB.
"What I have to consider as a minister is, are there underlying issues here that are affecting the performance of the board and the DHB?," Mr Cunliffe said.
"I think there definitely are and some of them are worth very serious consideration which is what we are urgently doing."
His options include sacking some or all of the board, closely monitoring the new board, or bringing in an independent commissioner to take over the running of the DHB.
National health spokesman Tony Ryall said the DHB had a "toxic management environment".
"I think we can only get that culture change from appointing a commissioner; someone who is going to shake the joint up and actually listen to the doctors and the nurses, the midwives, the people that are doing their very best every day but are under huge pressure of a management system that doesn't seem to take any notice of them," Mr Ryall said.
- with NZPA
