Dr Paul Hutchison National Associate Health Spokesman

16 June 2004

Crisis at Auckland DHB Predictable

The crisis at Auckland District Health Board was predictable, says National's Associate Health spokesman, Dr Paul Hutchison.

"Problems at ADHB are symptomatic of the layers of bureaucracy created by the Labour Government that are choking our health system."

Dr Hutchison is commenting on an announcement today that hundreds of management and administrative jobs will be reviewed by the ADHB in an attempt to restrain burgeoning administrative expenditure.

Dr Hutchison says that not only are there majority-elected DHBs, but three other major committees - health improvement, disability support, and hospital governance - which make it difficult to effectively and efficiently run our hospital system.

"It's a case of deja vu - former Minister of Health Helen Clark fired the dysfunctional DHB, of which her husband was a member, because of similar difficulties created by the previous Labour Government's health policies.

"Since Labour instituted its Health and Disability Act it has been obvious the highly complex bureaucracy associated with DHBs would eventually cause problems."

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