Chairwoman vexed at board meeting

Heated words were exchanged at a recent district health board meeting.

When Capital & Coast District Health Board members David Choat and Judith Aitken questioned a resolution to exclude the public and media from its August 10 meeting their comments were shut down and called ‘‘vexatious’’.

The board was to discuss a joint district health boards plan, an afterhours service plan, Newtown Union Health’s funding and a property lease to the Ole Soccer Academy.

Mr Choat said he was not convinced the subjects met the requirements of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act for nonpublic discussion.

Chairwoman Virginia Hope said she had been advised that all debate on excluding the public must be held in private.

Mr Choat disagreed saying the board had an option to hold those discussions in secret if they would prejudice matters covered by the act, but it was not an obligation.

Ms Aitken asked to know who the third parties were whose commercial position could be compromised in the case of Newtown Union Health.

Ms Hope put and end to the discussion.

‘‘This is just becoming vexatious,’’ she said.

Ms Aitken was visibly angered by the response, saying she had asked a genuine and reasonable question.

‘‘ I’m not happy to be called vexatious in a public forum,’’ she said.