Some Hawke's Bay patients facing eight-hour bus trip to Auckland

5.00pm

Some Hawke's Bay patients are facing eight-hour bus trips to Auckland for treatment instead of one-hour flights, as the district health board tries to cut $10 million of costs.

A Hastings 48-year-old, who sees an Auckland Hospital specialist three times a year about a rare immune disorder, said he was the first person the Hawke's Bay District Health Board wanted to send by bus to Auckland.

The Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) student said that would mean he would miss two days of classes because the bus journey took eight hours each way.

"If it comes to that I'll have to scotch the appointment," he said.

The health board has since promised to fly him to Auckland for his next appointment, but in future he expects to have to travel by bus.

He said he was considering reducing the number of appointments to two a year, during EIT holidays. The health board would pay for his accommodation in Auckland, which he could not afford on an invalid's benefit.

He said he understood that the board had to cut costs.

"I can see where they're coming from - they say it's cheaper to pay for the bus and two nights' accommodation than to fly someone up."

DHB chairman Kevin Atkinson said the board spent about $600,000 more a year on transporting patients than it was given by the Health Ministry.

Free transport in the past had been generally available to those on low incomes. Any decision about busing people instead of flying them would be made in consultation with clinicians.

"Transport arrangements will be changed only if it won't compromise the clinical outcome for the patient," he said.

Commercial coach operators run three buses a day between Hawke's Bay and Auckland, a journey of at least 7-1/2 hours and a change in Taupo.

The health board first announced it would be forced to make drastic cuts in April.

Since then, the amount the Government requires it to save to break even within three years has risen to $10 million.

Three weeks ago the board announced plans to cut $1.5 million in management and administration costs, but the biggest savings, $6.8 million, would be in service cuts and "reconfigurations".

Of that, $1.6 million has to be saved this year.

Mr Atkinson has hinted areas likely to face cuts included travel, accommodation and elective surgery.

- NZPA