Grieving family will push for funding
The grieving family of suicide victim Nicky Stevens plan to request legal funding from the board seeking a second coroner’s inquest into their son’s death, despite being refused permission to make the presentation.
Waikato District Health Board member Dave Macpherson, whose 21-year-old son Nicky’s suicide in 2015 was ruled avoidable by a coroner late last year, says he and his wha¯nau are determined to make the request for funding.
He said the funding would enable him and wife Jane Stevens to meet legal requirements expected because of the DHB’s unprecedented move to have a new coroner conduct another inquest.
The couple and their eldest son, Tony, plan to attend the board’s monthly meeting tomorrow to make the presentation, despite being refused permission by board chairwoman Sally Webb.
In a letter to Webb last week, Macpherson said the DHB’s request to the Solicitor-General for the second inquiry had already required the wha¯nau to seek legal advice.
“And the Solicitor-General has additionally informed us that our wha¯nau will be offered the chance to have input into their current process, for which we will need further legal support,” Macpherson wrote.
“Therefore we still have legal issues and legal costs that the DHB’s actions have caused.
“You have to accept that your actions, and especially the way you have gone about this matter, have caused significant emotional, legal and time-related problems for our wha¯ nau.”
Webb and interim chief executive Derek Wright fronted a decision by the DHB’s insurers, QBE, and external counsel Paul White, to pursue a second inquest after raising concerns about “procedural issues” during the June 2018 inquest heard by Coroner Wallace Bain.
“We would suggest that if the DHB was genuinely ‘sorry’ about causing us further distress, you would have discussed with us your intent to follow this unheard-of course of action, and your reasons for it,” the family said.
It’s understood the DHB psychiatrist who was treating Nicky when he was allowed out of the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre unescorted against his parents’ wishes, is part of the complaint to the Solicitor-General.
Macpherson told the Herald he expected security to be called to tomorrow’s meeting.
The DHB has been under fire for the decision and the meeting follows news last week that it’s put a $73,000, four-month recruitment hunt for a new chief executive on hold because of “challenges”.