Have Your Say - Wakatipu Health Trust

Following the very successful completion and public meetings on the Health Needs Assessment, the Trust supported by QLDC, have decided to host a community health forum which will give all members of the community a chance to learn more about the future options for Lakes District Hospital, its ramifications for Queenstown and also to contribute their thoughts, ideas and opinions on these potential options through a public consultation process. The DHB will also be an active contributor to this forum and will present their vision for Queenstown area as well. This will be hosted by an out of town, independent MC.

It is expected this will take the form of a one day work shop in late March. The final date and details will be confirmed shortly.

Lakes District Hospital is an essential service in our community. We are the stakeholders and the hospital exists for our benefit. We pay for it through our taxes. The range of services and care our hospital can provide is governed by the funding it receives. This is set by the DHB based in Invercargill. They control the spending, they own our hospital and they control what services will be delivered to us.

Please take a few minutes to answer this brief set of questions below on whether the current model is working properly - or whether our community should have more direct influence in the range of services available at the local hospital. This survey forms part of a community consultation process being undertaken by the Trust on the future of our hospital. It is being partly funded by the Community Trust of Southland. Your input is valuable.

Results of this survey will be collated as input into a hospital needs assessment that has been commissioned by the Trust to look at ways in which Queenstown might have a greater say in the range of services provided at Lakes District Hospital. All names will be held in strict confidence and are only important to ensure the survey is completed by residents of the district.

The level of funding that Invercargill provides to Queenstown is less than half that of other
regional hospitals. Would you like to see fairer more transparent funding for Queenstown -
at least at the same level per head of population as other regional hospitals?

Many of our elderly residents are forced to leave the district because of inadequate long term
hospital level elderly care beds. This has been a festering issue for Queenstown for many years.
Has Invercargill met its obligations to provide adequate long term hospital level elderly care beds to our elderly citizens?

Queenstown has some excellent mid-wives yet the maternity facilities at the hospital are spartan.
Do you think it is time that these facilities were enhanced to bring them up to the standard of other
regional hospitals around the country?

Lakes District Hospital has no rehab beds. The policy of Invercargill is to have Queenstown residents do
their convalescing at Kew Hospital in Southland. Other regional hospitals recognise the importance of allowing
patients to recover in their own community around their own families.
Do you think Queenstown Hospital should be offering rehab services, like other regional hospitals?

All of the regional public hospitals across Otago and Southland including Oamaru, Gore, Balclutha, Dunstan,
Ranfurly are owned/managed by their communities.
Should Queenstown be in control of its own hospital also?

Invercargill needs to maintain its own funding stream to support its own hospital.
Do you believe this gives rise to a conflict of interest in deciding how much funding and level of services
are allocated to Lakes District Hospital?

Invercargill has made it clear that even if the Queenstown community were to raise the money for a
CT Scan at Lakes District Hospital, they would refuse to allow it at "their" hospital. Communities in
other regions have raised money for their own CT Scans - like Oamaru. Should Queenstown have its
hospitals services constrained by this type of decision making?

The DHB is reviewing the services provided at Lakes District Hospital by conducting a regional
Capacity Review Study. This study examines the degree to which existing hospital services are
being utlised by the Queenstown community. It is the view of the Trust that this study will only
measure current services and not identify the gaps in services that leads to so many residents
having to leave town for treatment. The Trust believes a properly conducted community wide
Needs Assessment is the only true basis of determining the level and range of services that the
hospital should be delivering to the community. Do you agree with the Trust?

Lakes District Hospital at Frankton is on 2.9ha land on land zoned for hospital, located adjacent to
St John Ambulance, the airport and the centre of population growth. It is a single level building
designed with some clever future proofing innovations.
Do you believe Lakes District Hospital is located in a convenient location?

Would you like to see Lakes District Hospital being governed by a properly elected Board
comprising both health practitioners and commercially skilled people from our own community -
setting some specific goals and strategies for the future of Lakes District Hospital -
and being answerable to the community for its performance?