Debased mother scathing of Chin
The grieving mother whose reputation was smeared by Wellington health board boss Debbie Chin is disgusted she will leave the organisation without putting right her privacy breach.
A year has passed since the Privacy Commission censured Chin, the departing chief executive of Capital & Coast District Health Board, for sending an all-staff email attacking the reputation of Lyn Copland – just 11 days after her son, Samuel Fischer, died in the hospital’s care.
Copland has never received any reparation. The commission shut the file after she rejected a compensation bid of $5000.
Chin has now resigned and will leave at the end of 2017. Copland said it was more than two years since Fischer died of a suspected suicide in Wellington’s secure mental health unit, and it would be ‘‘disgusting’’ if Chin left without putting right her hurtful actions.
‘‘It would be a pittance of her salary. Does she not have the decency to see things right by the family?’’
When asked if Chin planned to make any restitution to Copland before she left, DHB chief legal counsel Roger Palairet said the board had fully engaged with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and considered the complaint had been dealt with.
‘‘There have been no further developments, and the privacy matter is closed.’’
Copland questioned the point of the Privacy Commission, if privacy breaches had no consequences.
She is now taking her privacy complaint to the Human Rights Review Tribunal but has been told the process will take two years.
In a ground-breaking Bill of Rights case, Copland is also suing the health board for failing to prevent her son’s death.