The health sector, as part of the public sector faces
increasingly constrained budgets and more accountability about how we
use them. How can we meet the needs of our changing population and
remain clinically and financially sustainable? We’ll have to be more
innovative and more flexible.
The challenges are both local and national. Locally,
we need to look again at the clinical services we provide, given the
greater focus on regional collaboration between DHBs. Nationally, we
need to live within our means.
Wairarapa DHB is undertaking a range of activities
under the umbrella of 'Going from Good to Great'. This is a particularly
appropriate title, as Wairarapa DHB is an efficient, high performing DHB
- as is our PHO. Unfortunately, this does not insulate us from the
changes happening in the world around us!
We are fortunate to be starting from a position of
strength. Over the last 3 years we have become one of the best
performing DHBs on national non-financial indicators overall, our
productivity has improved considerably, our services are based on
partnerships - local and regional, and we enjoy strong community
support. And we have excellent staff.
However, financial constraint is just one of the
pressures; we are clinically vulnerable due to our size and recruitment
issues, we have an ageing population; new technologies create
increased expectations and project progress reports to date all indicate
that a major focus needs to be improving the patient journey through
health services both in the community and in the hospital.
Just stopping services to save money is not an option
- it is a Government priority to maintain access to services. We are
being challenged to do things better, sooner, faster.... and within
budget! The answers to how we will make this happen will need to come
from right across the organisation. Apart from patient safety, this will
be our highest priority over the coming months.
The group of projects described here will ground a sustainable 5 year
'Good to Great' plan. There are four main work streams:
1. The Clinical Services Action Plan
2. Strategies to help us do our jobs better
3. Workforce and service efficiency projects
4. Immediate cost management initiatives
