Review should be independent
Tension between the Canterbury District Health Board and the Government has been building for some time. From at least a year ago, the health board has warned the Government that the strain of recovery after the earthquakes is beginning to show and it believes it is underfunded to deal with it. It has met with little sympathy and a letter sent to the board earlier this month by Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman and Minister of Finance Bill English showed that none is in the offing.
Some members of the health board believe that the letter is softening the board up to be sacked. Those members are all on the left of the spectrum and may have agendas of their own. But the tone of the letter was almost hostile and after the dismissal this month of the Southern District Health Board the notion that sacking is a possibility is not unreasonable.
The letter came after an urgent meeting with the ministers requested by the board. One of the ministers’ complaints is about the board’s alleged failure to co-operate sufficiently with oversight of the earthquake repairs programme. Last year the Cabinet decided that something called the hospital redevelopment partnership group would have oversight of the repairs. This involves having contracts managed through the Ministry of Health.
Given the amount of money the Government has committed some oversight is to be expected. It should be noted, though, that the Ministry of Health does not have a golden reputation for rigour and efficiency. The idea of central control of contracts immediately raises images of the kind of bureaucratic hell that contractors on some of the anchor projects complain about, which seems to have led to a number of those projects grinding virtually to a halt.
More alarmingly, the ministers complain about the board’s $18 million deficit for the current financial year with more forecast in the draft for next year. They rather patronisingly point out what the Government has provided in assistance after the earthquakes without a hint of acknowledgement of the huge insurance shortfalls and the vastly increased costs it has faced.
A couple of years ago, the board won a prestigious prize for how well it had functioned during and after the earthquakes. The chairman was newly installed by the Government last year. It is hard to believe he and it have forgotten how to function in such a short time.
An indication of how far apart the Government and the board are is the fact that they seem to be unable to agree over the number of people the board is responsible for. That difference is fundamental and is at the root of the board’s belief that it is underfunded. It is astonishing that they do not have a protocol that enables something so basic to be objectively determined.
The ministers have instructed the Ministry of Health to review the board’s finances. The ministry, however, appears to be at the heart of the problem. If a review is going to be anything other than a cynical, rigged exercise it should at least be conducted by a body independent of the process.