The appointment of a project manager to work on the Southern District Health Board’s (SDHB) primary maternity strategy indicates the wheels have been turning on the implementation of the drawn-out strategy.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought any further developments to a halt. 

Through the primary maternity strategy, the SDHB intends to improve facilities and support for maternity care across the region, including in Wanaka. 

“The recent focus has been determining the best location for primary maternity facilities in the Central Otago and Wanaka areas…” SDHB general manager primary care and population health Mary Cleary Lyons said. 

“The project manager’s role will be to lead the tasks needed to support the decision-making, and coordinate the implementation of this important aspect of the wider strategy.”

The SDHB has been slammed by independent reviewers at Ernst & Young over the strategy. Their report, released in November, said there were unclear accountabilities, no coordinated delivery plan, inconsistent reporting, inadequate community engagement, and a lack of progress. 

Governance was informal, unclear and inconsistent, Ernst & Young said, and key roles remained vacant - including the project manager position which has now been filled.

“It’s a step in the right direction but there’s still a long way to go before the public can have confidence in the SDHB’s ability to deliver effective maternity services,” Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean said. 

Jacqui said there had been repeated delays in progressing the strategy in 2019 and early 2020.

And now there’s another roadblock to implementation - the COVID-19 pandemic has directed the focus of the SDHB’s attention elsewhere, and there is no clear timeline for when progress might resume. 

“This work has been disrupted in recent weeks due to the DHB’s need to prioritise our response to COVID-19 as needed under alert level four,” Mary said. “We are hopeful to resume our efforts as soon as possible, but this will depend on the trajectory of the pandemic in New Zealand, and the resources that need to be committed to stamping it out of our communities.” 

The project manager has been employed on a one-year, fixed term contract. 

PHOTO: Supplied