14 August 2015

DHB budgets not keeping up with emergency work

DHB budgets are not able to cope with rises in emergency department visits, putting patients at risk, Labour Health spokesperson Annette King says.

“Figures released to Labour under the OIA show that Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Hutt Valley, Waikato and Waitemata DHBs have all blown their personnel budgets due to higher than expected visits to the emergency department.

“These staff budget blowouts in month of April alone were $6.6 million for Auckland DHB, $7.0 million for Bay of Plenty, $6.9 million for the Hutt Valley, $10.5 million for the Waikato and 17.1 million for Waitemata.

“These are people coming in to emergency rooms with urgent need of medical care, and our health budget can’t keep up. That’s putting huge pressure on our doctors, forcing them to work much longer hours and putting patients care at risk.

“National cut $1.7 billion dollars from the health budget in the last 5 years through underfunding. Now we are seeing the results as stretched budgets cannot keep up with the number of people in need.

“National needs to make sure that our healthcare system has the resources to give New Zealanders the care they need when they need it,” Annette King says.

ends

© Scoop Media