New Health Cuts Hurt Spokesperson Elected

FRIDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2004
MEDIA RELEASE –
ATTENTION: HEALTH REPORTERS

New Health Cuts Hurt Spokesperson Elected

“Following the election of the Health Cuts Hurt Spokesperson (Heather Carter) to the Board in the recent elections, Eleanor Carter was elected as the new Spokesperson at last night’s committee meeting,” Eleanor Carter, new Spokesperson of Health Cuts Hurt Inc said today.

Eleanor Carter is the daughter of former spokesperson Heather Carter, who begins her role as an elected Board member from the first meeting of the new Board on 10 December.

“In early 2003, 10,500 patients on waiting lists for elective surgery, were referred back to their GPs by the CDHB. Health Cuts Hurt was formed in reaction to the cuts to the waiting lists and was highly critical of the move at the time,“ said Eleanor Carter.

“As spokesperson I will be continuing to raise publicly the fact that the Board is underfunded by about $30m or more over the next three years due to the vagaries of the Population Based Funding model and the way it penalises Canterbury Health,” said Eleanor Carter. “Rather than selling off public assets such as Queen Mary and Hillmorton Hospital land, the Board should be seeking more funding from Wellington.”

“Our group decided last night that one of our goals over the next twelve months would be to try to make the problems in Canterbury health a general election issue,” said Eleanor Carter.

ENDS

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