Waitaki District Health Services

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It's now or never - let St John know your thoughts prior to the meeting being held to discuss this further with the Community...

Council ownership of Oamaru hospital a “godsend” - 20th Sep 2022

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.”

Oamaru Hospital - Patients requiring medical assistance at our Emergency Department. - 16th Nov 2021

 Oamaru Hospital - Patients requiring medical assistance at our Emergency Department.

Please do the following:

  • Entry to the Emergency Department is beside our Ambulance Bay, if you report to the main reception, you will be redirected to use this door.
  • If you have any cold, flu or COVID symptoms please visit your GP rather than coming to the Emergency Department.
  • Please keep ED for emergencies.  If you have a minor illness, then visit your GP in the first instance.
  • Please note only one support person with the patient. Also, all visitors to the hospital will be screened at the doors.
  • If you develop symptoms consistent with COVID-19, call your GP or 0800 VIRUS19 (0800 847 8719) to get tested. You can get a free test at your GP – call ahead to find out if you need a test and follow their advice.

For COVID-19 health advice and information, contact the Healthline team (for free) on 0800 358 5453.

PLEASE BE PATIENT AND KIND TO OUR STAFF IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES.

Statement of Intent 2019-20 now available - 3rd Oct 2019

The 2019-20 Statement of Intent is a compliance document as part of our requirements for Waitaki District Health Services Limited.  This document is updated annually and has been made available on the website.

Oamaru Hospital Launches New Website - 2nd Oct 2019

Oamaru Hospital has recently launched a new website to help improve access to information and to keep the community well informed on activities. 

This new website (https://www.waitakihealth.co.nz) has already proved effective for receiving community feedback and has assisted in the recruitment of staff.

“Members of our community have provided feedback both on aspects of their care where we could have done better, as well as positive accolades for the care received.  All feedback gets managed through our internal policies that guide how we manage complaints and bouquets” Ruth Kibble, Chief Executive of Waitaki District Health Services said. 

“People interested in working at Oamaru Hospital have also been using this site to understand more about the hospital and the services we deliver.  The website has been mentioned in recent interviews by doctors looking for permanent roles in Oamaru, some of them from overseas” Mrs Kibble said.

This website will provide up to date health advice and information. 

“We have made a commitment to ensure effective communication processes are in place” Paul Allison, Chairman of Waitaki District Health Services said.

“This website, alongside Health Forums and Media updates, will play an important role of our newly approved Communication Strategy that seeks to provide easily accessible information to our community” he said. 

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Ruth Kibble, Chief Executive Officer - Ruth.Kibble@southerndhb.govt.nz

Paul Allison, Chairman – paulallison.nz@gmail.com

Annual Report 2017-18 - 1st Jun 2018

Annual Report 2017-18

The Year in Review

The 2017-18 year was significant, due to it being a period where significant change for Waitaki District Health Services Limited was seeded. During the earlier part of this year, we continued to work to implement the model of care that had been approved previously and entered discussions about how we align with the Southern DHB Primary and Community Strategy.

The changes driven by the model of care development have a strong focus on how we deliver our services, especially those within the community. This has provided the opportunity and challenge to how we need to realign our services to work within this paradigm. An example of the outputs of this work include the development of the Waitaki District Health Services Directory which is now proudly available through the Safer Waitaki webpage.

View the Waitaki District Health Services Annual Report 2017-18.

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