9 December 2004

Accountability Lacking In Health Projects

Heads should roll over the shambles which developed around the building of Hawkes Bay’s new acute assessment ward in Hastings, says New Zealand First health spokesperson Barbara Stewart.

“It is to be hoped that the Minister of Health has learned some accountability lessons from this disastrous project and those involved take some responsibility for their waste.

“The project was pushed by the Hawkes Bay District Health Board and signed off by the Ministry of Health with a happy disregard for the spending of taxpayer dollars.

“Many people in Hawkes Bay are less than happy with the outcome. They have an exorbitantly expensive new building on a site which was identified as geologically unstable in 1995, so future structural problems cannot be ruled out.

“They have also lost a 27 bed hospital ward, which means that, even with a $12 million new building they now have fewer beds.

“Hard upon the heels of this disaster comes the news that the Minister has approved a new $14 million health centre in Levin to replace Horowhenua Hospital. The announcement has been accompanied by all the usual extravagant promises from both the Minister and the local MP about the development being the way of the future and a great victory.

“The people of Horowhenua would probably be just as happy with an assurance that the lack of organisation and accountability displayed in Hawkes Bay will not be visited upon their new project,” said Mrs Stewart.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>