Napier Public Hospital Community Consultation issue the subject of Court Appeal

Media Release

The Napier Public Health Action Group does not accept Justice Heath's recent judgment on one of the two issues bearing on the DHB's attempts to sell the former Napier Public Hospital site.

At a meeting on Saturday it was decided that the judgment on the lack of community consultation the District Health Board was bound in law to undertake, and didn't, was so flawed that an appeal is merited.

The DHB was required to formally consult with the community before attempting to sell the hospital. This consultation was supposed to be carried out to the high standards set out under the Local Bodies Act. None of this happened!.

The Minister of Health was required by law to 'be satisfied' that the DHB had carried out this consultation. Since the DHB hadn't, the Minister couldn't have been.

The DHB was not named as a defendant in the recent court action, and perhaps it should have been. However the Minister of Health was, and this glaring failure of duty to ensure underpins much of the deceitful behaviour of the DHB, government agencies, and Ministers of the Crown since then.

No accountability or required redress for this failure on the part of the Health Minister was found in the judgment, and we believe it should have been.

Legal opinions suggest that good grounds for successful appeal exist on the community consultation issue..

ENDS

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