3.9 billion dollars was promised to District Health Boards by the Government in July over four years – but has the Canterbury District Health Board received any of this money?

Last month, the CDHB signed off an annual plan for 2020-21 that includes savings of $56.9m to reduce its deficit from $180m.

This was a directive from the Government.

Acting Executive Director Planning Funding and Decision Support Ralph La Salle told Chris Lynch the DHB doesn’t apply for funding, but money is allocated to the board by the Government.

He said “the announcement refers to a record investment of $980M per year.”

“Of this $990M, Canterbury DHB was allocated $86.26m for the 12 months from July 2020 through June 2021.”

The Canterbury District Health Board has released a breakdown of where this money will be spent:

• ($28.0M) – used to reduce deficit

• ($18.6m) – used to cover uplift in Interest, Depreciation and Capital Charge for 20/21 year

• ($8.5M) – used to cover increases announced in pharmaceuticals

• ($8.5M) – used to cover increase in mental health ring-fenced funding

• ($5.0M)– used to cover previous programmes started in 19/20 year which were devolved to DHB in 20/21

• ($20.0M) – used to cover increases in aged residential care, primary care capitation, increases in pharmacy distribution, CPI increase in supplies, medical supplies and consumables, increases in Multi Employer Collective Agreements.

In May the Government said Budget 2020 delivered the biggest ever increase in funding for District Health Boards, as well as additional funding to deliver approximately 153,000 more surgeries and procedures, radiology scans and specialist appointments to help clear the COVID-19 backlog.

The CDHB said this funding relates to the one-off boost funding of $282.5M over 3 years for a catch up campaign following the COVID -19 disruption. 

Ralph La Salle said the Canterbury DHB has been notified that its allocation of funding for the 20/21 year* is $8.03M. 

“The DHB is in the process of negotiating how the funding will be spent during the year.”

“ It is expected that within the month, the DHB and MOH will agree and the funding will be incorporated into our planned care agreement.”

“This funding will allow us to provide further services for the year than what is contained in our normal annual plan which will help the DHB provide services this year which were not provided last year due to the COVID disruption. (*noting that the DHB ‘year’ runs from 1 July – 30 June)