Health NZ Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) - the entity responsible for planning and delivering health services - has provided an update on its planning for the Central Lakes region (which includes Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago).

A statement from HNZ on Monday (September 1) - ‘Shaping the future of health services in Central Lakes’ - outlined the clinical services review currently underway. 

Meanwhile, private investors and others are planning health infrastructure and, in one case, preparing to break ground.

HNZ said it is planning “to guide the future of health services in the Central Lakes region – one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing areas – with initial workshops and stakeholder engagement sessions already in progress”.

The project will “help to determine what future publicly funded clinical services may be required in the area, how they will be delivered, and where they will be provided”. 

Wānaka investment company Roa has just received consent for a five-level surgical hospital and helipad, supported by four purpose-designed office buildings for allied medical services, and on-site car parking.

Roa CEO Mike Saegers said the community “can now look forward to the Wānaka Health Precinct attracting medical specialties and services not currently available in the area”.

Roa has big plans for health infrastructure at Three Parks, and the Wānaka App is aware that these plans have been seen by local representatives and others. Roa did not respond to the Wānaka App’s recent request for more information.

Read more: Green light for Roa ‘health precinct’

Why wait for the government to do it? The Regional Deal

Also underway are regional deal negotiations between central government and Otago Lakes Central (a group comprising Queenstown District Council (QLDC), Central Otago District Council, and Otago Regional Council). 

The draft deal includes plans for a privately financed, publicly leased hospital in Queenstown - at least partly funded by Queenstown businessman Rod Drury’s Southern Infrastructure group.

Wānaka councillor Lyal Cocks, the QLDC member of the regional deal negotiating committee, said the deal includes a proposal for health infrastructure and services based on work undertaken by the Otago Central Lakes Health Services and Assets Project and health advocacy group Health Action Wānaka (HAW), as well as identifying existing health projects and resources.  

Lyal told the Wānaka App “we’ve got to look at alternative ways of doing things”, explaining that if private providers build health infrastructure maybe central government doesn’t have to.

“It’s a good thing if we get it earlier rather than later.”

Public servants: HNZ community integration group manager Aroha Metcalf (Photo courtesy Health Action Wānaka), QLDC mayor Glyn Lewers, CODC mayor Tamah Alley.

Lyal said it was essential to ensure HNZ completes a Clinical Services Plan (CSP) for the region to identify what is needed and where, and “provides the services as identified in the CSP, in whatever way possible”. 

Read more: ‘Red flags’ raised during regional deal vote

Mayors, MPs, private investors collaborate

The Otago Central Lakes Health Services and Assets Project, which includes Central Otago District Council mayor Tamah Alley, Queenstown Lakes mayor Glyn Lewers, Southland MP Joseph Mooney, Waitaki MP Miles Anderson, and Queenstown-based ACT MP Todd Stephenson (and which is backed by a charitable trust) has been working with health infrastructure specialist Helen Foot - of Markit Consulting in Queenstown - with the goal of incorporating public health services alongside existing and planned private providers. 

Helen Foot has not responded to questions put by the Wānaka App.

A statement from the group in July said HNZ’s clinical services review “clears the way for a new hospital in the region that could complement and support existing health services”. 

“It could be New Zealand’s first large privately-owned and publicly operated hospital,” the statement said.

Read more: Mayors, MPs welcome clinical services review

HAW steering committee chair Monique Mayze told the Wānaka App HAW has concerns that there is too much focus on Queenstown as the location for a regional hospital.

“We maintain that the location of a hospital in our region must be driven by community need — across the whole region — and not by the commercial interests of developers in Queenstown,” she said.

Read more: A ‘void’ in health care planning as private plans proliferate

What is Health NZ’s role?

Despite this work underway, a Wānaka App question to HNZ on who is responsible for planning health infrastructure drew a firm response: “The role of planning for public health services sits exclusively with HNZ,” HNZ Southern interim group director of operations Craig Ashton said.

HNZ’s statement on Monday (September 1) said its Southern executive regional director Dr Pete Watson, who is new to the role, is encouraging regional and Southern health leaders and service providers to think of the future: digital technologies, new innovations, different ways of working and using different workforces.

HNZ Te Waipounamu community integration group manager Aroha Metcalf said planning will incorporate secondary hospitals in Dunedin and Invercargill as well as rural hospitals in the district.

“This planning process is essential to shaping the future mix, delivery model, and distribution of publicly funded health services for the Central Lakes region,” she said.

Roa has received resource consent for stage one of a health precinct at Wānaka’s Three Parks.

“We are committed to working closely with the community, papatipu rūnanga (local Iwi), and key stakeholder groups to ensure access to high-quality and appropriate healthcare services. Community views and experiences of the health system will be a cornerstone of the clinical services planning process.” 

Aroha said the review will “set a precedent nationally for the way services are delivered in rural and remote communities by responding to population and geography in equal measure”.

HNZ said it is on track to deliver a Clinical Services Plan by December, with planning for implementation beginning in the new year.

IMAGES: Supplied