No Fighting Chance For Hawkes Bay DHB

ACT New Zealand Health Spokesman Heather Roy today accused Health Minister David Cunliffe of embarking on a deliberate campaign to discredit Hawkes Bay District Health Board - most recently by announcing that he is considering appointing a commissioner to run the Board's affairs.

"In December Capital & Coast DHB - known to be suffering from a serious dis-connect between Board, management and clinical staff - had a new Chair and Clinical Monitor appointed. Labour claimed there were legal reasons that a commissioner could not be put in place," Mrs Roy said.

"Yet today we learn that HBDHB - which has a good relationship between those three groups - may be lumbered with a commissioner for reasons known only to Mr Cunliffe.

"The fact is that the Minister has not even given HBDHB a fighting chance - he has used the long-overdue review hanging over HBDHB as a weapon to discredit the current Board and its chair, and has failed since the DHB elections in October to assign his appointees and re-appoint the Chair except on a day-to-day basis until the review is complete.

"Mr Cunliffe's failure has meant that the Board could not form the required committees, plan effectively or give any assurance to staff and the Hawkes Bay public. No organisation is able to function under these circumstances, and there are so many questions left un-answered in this case that the Minister needs to begin explaining immediately," Mrs Roy said.