"Dysfunctional" DHB boards call spreads to Southld

15 December 2005

“Dysfunctional” DHB boards call spreads to Southland

Southland DHB board member Mary Ogg’s description on Wednesday's TV1 news of the board being “dysfunctional” is further proof of the failure of the partially elected boards which were supposed to make the health system “open and accountable”, according to Democrats for Social Credit health spokesman David Tranter.

As one of seventeen DHB board members who resigned during the boards' first three year term I can understand why Mrs. Ogg has joined such eminent health personnel as Christchurch surgeon and former Canterbury board member Philip Bagshaw who also used the word “dysfunctional” to describe DHB boards, Mr. Tranter said.

Mr. Bagshaw also described the boards as “un-democratic”. Given that the elected board members are gagged and under the control of the DHB corporate bureaucrats in conjunction with the government’s four appointed members - including the chairs and deputy chairs – that description is indisputable.

The call for a commissioner to replace the Southland board will almost certainly be ignored by Health Minister Pete Hodgson because to take that action would bring into the open fundamental DHB board/management failings which government and their DHB lackeys would much rather be kept under wraps.

Once again the Democrats for social credit call for an independent enquiry into the role of DHB boards which have become mere pawns – and very costly ones at that - in the political/bureaucratic games being played with the public health system

ENDS

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