The mental health mobile community team (MCT) will have its 17 cars reduced to six under new measures that come into effect today, leaving five crisis cars to cover mental health emergencies, says the Public Service Association (PSA).

To save money, the health board has undertaken a vehicle-usage review that will see it cut 47 cars from its fleet of 209. It used GPS tracking for two months to find out how often the cars were being used and for what purpose.

The health board expects the review will save $1.5 million over three years

About 27 mobile community mental health team members work for the health board and use the cars to visit mental health patients in their homes and transport them to appointments.

A MCT member, who did not want to be named because they feared losing their job, told the Nelson Mail that taking away the cars was “nonsensical”.

“Our service is that we can promptly respond, and if we can’t, we feel it’s going to be potentially a risk to the clients and detrimental to their care,” the team member said.

“[When Ngawhatu closed] the ethos was to move care into the community, and our job is to ensure people stay well and out of hospital. We need cars to visit these people.”

The team member said the five crisis cars were meant to cover emergencies, but those were only part of their job.

“Our job isn’t just about dealing with crises, it’s also continuing care and helping people before they fall over, but that’s going to be restricted.”

The health board’s finance and commercial general manager, Nigel Trainor, did not reply to specific questions this week but told The Nelson Mail two weeks ago that the vehicle review would not affect clinical care for patients.

PSA organiser Mike Cunliffe said the union disagreed with Mr Trainor.

“They provide a mobile mental health service and can’t do their job without easy access to a car, often at short notice,” he said. “The car reduction planned by the board will affect their ability to respond to their patients.”

He said the hospital carpool would involve extra time to access through “a cumbersome and inefficient process”.

The health board has invited Mr Cunliffe, who has raised the concerns on behalf of the MCT, to view the vehicle review’s data and would answer the union’s questions then.

Mr Trainor said in a statement on Tuesday that the vehicle review showed some health board vehicles were being underused.

Vehicle usage would now be monitored and numbers adjusted if evidence supported it.

He said 28 pool vehicles would be available for all staff members, including the MCT, to use through a booking system.

However, the team member said it was common for unexpected crises to come up and to have to find a car at short notice would be difficult.

The worker also questioned the review process that decided the number of vehicles allocated, and said the board had not adequately consulted the MCT about its concerns.

Mr Cunliffe said the MCT would now set up a system to monitor the direct effects of the changes on their level of care and making the information they gather available to the PSA.

Otago District Health Board short-term loan equipment storeman James Bryan at the Wakari Hospital transport office shows one of the 200 GPS data loggers installed in board vehicles to help analyse vehicle use. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Vehicle use by Otago District Health Board staff is being monitored to assess its efficiency, a move which could lead to annual savings of about $100,000.
From the start of this month, global positioning system (GPS) data loggers are being used for five weeks in the board’s 186 leased vehicles and the 14 it owns.
Board group manager of diagnostic and support services Sonja Dillon said the cost of the survey was an estimated $40,000 to $50,000.
It was expected the survey findings could lead to a reduction in fleet costs of between 10% and 20% – more than $100,000 a year.
Ms Dillon said installing the GPS loggers to show vehicle use patterns, rather than have staff manually recording vehicle use, would assist with collation and interpretation of the information.

The data loggers were leased and once the five weeks was over they would be used by another district health board, she said.
Ms Dillon said staff had been informed about the survey before it began and there had been little comment.

The board was assessing vehicle use and vehicle allocation across all departments.
This year, more than $2.5 million is budgeted for transport for board services and to the end of January this was one area where the board was under budget by almost $150,000.
Last year, the board stepped up its shuttle service for people travelling between Wakari and Dunedin Hospitals in an effort to reduce spending on taxis.

When it was introduced last September it was hoped it might save up to $60,000 over a full year.
Regional building and property services manager Warren Taylor said he had received positive comments about the improved service.
elspeth.mclean@odt.co.nz