Watch Out New Zealand - Your DHB May Be Next

Once again Health Minister David Cunliffe is religiously adhering to his mantra of 'saving face over saving lives' - this time by sacking the members of one of New Zealand's best-functioning District Health Boards, ACT New Zealand Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.

"Mr Cunliffe's announcement today, that HBDHB members have been sacked and replaced by a Commissioner effective immediately, is outrageous - especially as he refused to appoint a Commissioner to run Capital & Coast DHB, which is in much worse shape," Mrs Roy said.

"In December the Minister cited legal reasons to avoid appointing a Commissioner to CCDHB, which was known to be suffering from a large and worsening deficit and a serious dis-connect between Board, management and clinical staff. Instead, he installed a new Chair and Clinical Monitor.

"HBDHB, on the other hand, has a good relationship between those three groups - yet today its members have been sacked and replaced by a Commissioner.

"HBDHB warned both Mr Cunliffe and his predecessor on three occasions of the worsening deficit position it faced - warnings that were ignored. This, combined with the fact that Mr Cunliffe has steadfastly refused to announce his own appointees to the Board - preventing it from forming the committees it needs to function - left the Board without a fighting chance of doing its job.

"Mr Cunliffe set up HBDHB to fail. While Health is known to lack transparency, its Minister's motivation is clear. HBDHB has been made a scapegoat; I suspect the decision to sack all its publicly elected members was made well before he publicly called on the Board to defend itself last week.

"Seen to be criticising the Government is a cardinal sin to Minister Cunliffe; a problem that he feels must be nipped in the bud immediately. His fear is that if HBDHB is allowed to speak the truth, how long would it be before other DHBs follow suit?

"Today's announcement is a scare tactic: Mr Cunliffe is using HBDHB as an example to frighten other DHBs away from speaking out when they have concerns about healthcare for their patients, and has used his significant Ministerial powers as a form of behaviour therapy. Watch out New Zealand: your District Health Board could be the next to go," Mrs Roy said.