Please Explain Ask Senior Doctors

THURSDAY 4 MARCH 2004

Please Explain Ask Senior Doctors

''Senior doctors want the government and the Canterbury District Health Board to explain the discrepancy between their positions over health funding,'' said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

“On the one hand, the Minister of Health confidently asserts that health funding is adequate to both maintain services for patients and cope with deficits.”

“On the other hand, in response to its objective of avoiding a deficit and a blow-out, the Canterbury District Health Board is considering measures that involve spending cuts and risk affecting patient services.”

“Either government health funding is inadequate to maintain existing services at a reasonable level of quality or the Canterbury DHB is ineffectively managing its funding. Perhaps the answer is somewhere in the middle?”

“In the meantime senior doctors are struggling with inadequate resources and extraordinary pressures to maintain services. They deserve an explanation,” concluded Mr Powell.

Ian Powell

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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