The Southern District Health Board was approaching the legal limit of its overdraft and facing insolvency before it received extra Government funding, documents released under the Official Information Act reveal. In January, Health Minster David Clark approved a request for $40.3million "equity support" for the SDHB, along with funds for three other DHBs in dire financial straits. The full equity support request would clear the SHDB’s overdraft the report said. However, Dr Clark also wrote to SDHB commissioner Kathy Grant to stress his expectation that the board would manage within its allocated funding. On Friday, Parliament’s health select committee released its report on its annual review of the SDHB.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 07, 2019 16:30 UTC