While the Government’s budget estimates are now before the Public Accounts Committee we look back on the performance of Government departments and some of the challenges they face as revealed in the 2022-2023 State of the Public Service Annual Report.
The Department of Health highlighted some of the challenges such as old aging equipment. As such the slowing down of service deliveries caused by old IT equipment that needed an upgrade.
Another challenge was the hospital septic, the odor is still an ongoing challenge.
However one of the achievements sighted was the Professional Development of the Health staff. The staff were encouraged to enroll in online courses for up-skilling. As a result, -7 nurses completed the Bachelor of Nursing program and a doctor completed the Rural Health Program from Otago University.
Also during this period, there were a total of 8 Medivacs with 6 Females and 2 Males. The reason for this is that not many medical specialists visited for this period and so the very sick were left too late, hence some Medivacs were activated.
On Saturday there was a Medivac of a Male patient in his 70’s to Auckland.
The Health Department’s budget for the new financial year starting next month is $3.4 million a 7.8 percent increase from the previous budget.
Over the next few weeks, BCN News will be covering the various Ministries from the 2022-2023 State of the Public Service Annual Report.