SDHB Funding

The ODT reports:

A review of the health funding model has revealed what many long suspected – the Southern District Health Board is not receiving its fair share of health dollars.

A Cabinet paper on the Ministry of Health review was released yesterday.

However, Southern’s proposed increase is relatively minor.

Had it been in place this year, Southern’s share of $11.4billion would have been 6.81%, rather than 6.78% ($775million).

So the formula tweak sees funding go from $772.9 million to $776.3 million – a gain of $3.4 million per annum.

Their deficit is thought to be around $40 million, so the impact of funding formula change is very minor. Other DHBs manage to roughly break even with their funding. The SDHB have been unable to get even close.