The demands of a growing and ageing population in the Upper Clutha has been highlighted in the Central Otago Health Services Limited (COHSL) 2021 Annual Report released last week.

The report said inpatient activity at Dunstan Hospital is increasing at an average of 7.7 per cent each year, a rate equivalent to a doubling of demand every ten years. 

The report said the impact on health services of the ageing, retired population cannot be underestimated and it will continue to put sustained and increasing pressure on service delivery.

“Our growing population and ageing population is across all of our catchment area, but Upper Clutha in particular is growing faster,” COHSL chief executive Kathy de Luc told the Wānaka App.

The COHSL report highlighted the need to consider how health services and facilities are developed in the Upper Clutha, and focused on the opportunity for a co-ordinated, multi-provider response to “reduce the risk of fragmented service development which hinders the delivery of a truly integrated health service”.

COHSL chief executive Kathy de Luc 

To meet the identified growing need, the concept of a ‘health hub’ in the Upper Clutha to deliver local services and reduce pressure of travel to and from Dunstan Hospital is being considered, Kathy said. 

“We need to ensure that we have services that are appropriately located and have an appropriate size for the growing population.” 

“It’s about the opportunity for services to work more closely together, and also for patients to not have to go to multiple sites and different places across town; that they actually come to a one stop shop,” Kathy said.

The intention is to provide the best delivery of care by focussing on the patient and the families and putting aside the fact that we are all separate organisations with different funding streams, she said.

“The whole thing is about keeping patients in their community, if it's safe, as long as we can.”

Kathy said there are no formal plans in place at this stage but conversations are a starting point to discuss the future of what healthcare services will look like for the Upper Clutha.

“We haven't got a definite timeline but what we're signaling to other providers, and to our funders, and to our population is what we would like to achieve. And then we have to talk about how we go about achieving it.”

COHSL is the community owned, not-for-profit company, which is responsible for providing health services out of Dunstan Hospital at Clyde.

It’s primarily funded by the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) but its target population growth annual funding adjustor is around 2.5 per cent, well below the identified annual local average of 7.7 per cent. 

COHSL will continue discussions with SDHB, and other local health providers, to resolve the mismatch of funding and the increase in demand for health services, the report said.

PHOTOS: Supplied