Delamere Allays Concerns Over Whakatane Hospital

Associate Health Minister and MP for Te Tai Rawhiti, Hon Tuariki Delamere, today released a Health Funding Authority letter which clearly indicates there is no cause for concern about the future of surgical and maternity services at Whakatane Hospital.

"It is mischiefmaking of the worst kind to assert constantly that these services will disappear, when it seems the only motive for making such statements is to arouse fear and concern among the people of the eastern Bay of Plenty.

"It appears these uncertainties are being pushed along by the leaking of an anonymous e-mail, allegedly from some mid-level bureaucrat in the Health Funding Authority.

"The authenticity of that e-mail has never been established yet it seems to have been accorded the status of Holy Writ by people who merely want to make trouble, rather than a positive contribution to the health services of the eastern Bay of Plenty.

"As I have said before, that e-mail is merely the opinion of an analyst; it has never been presented to Health Ministers; nor has the Board of the HFA ever considered presenting the ideas it contains to Ministers.

"The fact is, as the attached letter shows, that the Board of Eastbay Health has received an assurance from the funder, Midland Health, that it intends buying surgical and maternity services out of Eastbay for at least the foreseeable future, i.e. the next 5 years and beyond.

"In the light of that assurance, it is up to the CHE Board to decide whether the hospital's planned $750,000 upgrading of its operating theatres will go ahead, as well as the $1 million relocation of the maternity facility," said Mr Delamere.