Council ownership of Oamaru hospital a “godsend”
MEDIA RELEASE: 20th September 2022
Over the last week or so there have been a number of candidates in the Council elections talking about the ownership model for Oamaru Hospital, mostly to the effect that Council ownership of the hospital isn’t able to generate the funding needed for the proper running of the hospital.
“Those statements are simply factually incorrect”, said Keith Marshall, Chief Executive, Waitaki District Health Services. “The reality is that, right now, there is absolutely no funding source that we cannot access under the current ownership model. Indeed, if anything, the current ownership model probably provides a lot more opportunities than a Trust or other model ever could for opening some new funding avenues short of the government taking it over again, and which I get the sense that none of us here in Oamaru really want to happen!”
Mr Marshall went on further to say, “From my perspective, I can categorically say that changing the ownership of the hospital would not solve any funding problems whatsoever. In fact, I’d go even further than that and say that Trust or other non-Council ownership would make a difficult financial situation much worse if anything. The reality is that the Waitaki District Council has been incredibly helpful and an absolute godsend in respect to our financial support.”