Ian McLean Spokesperson for the Green Party

Government announced last week that hospital meals throughout the country will be outsourced, at a cost of an estimated 1300 jobs.

In the same week, Queenstown Council announced that outsourced services will be brought back under council management. Job losses were expected.

These lost jobs are hardly consistent with the Government's claimed efforts at job creation.

Queenstown was the king of outsourcing, and it did not work. As the central problems, it cites cost blowouts, poor service quality, lack of communication among service providers and slow turnaround by contractors.

Hospital food will now be made in Auckland or Christchurch, frozen, and shipped throughout the country at a significant carbon cost. The provider is an international company, meaning profits, if there are any, will be shipped overseas.

Outsourcing can look cheap when only the bottom line is considered. In Queenstown's case, the cost savings were illusory and services declined. Do we really need to repeat the same experiment in hospitals?

Ian McLean is a spokesperson for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. Email: ian.mclean@greens.org.nz or call 579 4670.