Health Ministry staff ‘dumped’ on CDHB
Canterbury District Health Board deputy chairman Ta Mark Solomon says Health Ministry staff ‘‘dumped’’ on the CDHB’s management from the moment he started.
Solomon was appointed deputy board chair last year, but became acting chair in February when Murray Cleverley stepped down amid allegations of conflicts of interest in his previous dealings at the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.
Yesterday, Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman announced Canterbury University chancellor Dr John Wood as the new CDHB chairman. The response was mixed. One CDHB member was ‘‘dumbfounded’’ the minister appointed Wood over Solomon.
Solomon said he would remain on the board as deputy chair at Wood’s request.
During Solomon’s six months at the helm the board’s relationship with the ministry deteriorated.
CDHB members clashed with Coleman and the Government in recent months over a ministry funding botch-up and accusations of CDHB financial mismanagement.
Solomon said the first sign of trouble was when he and fellow newly appointed CDHB members Tracey Chambers and Barry Bragg went to an induction meeting in Wellington last year.
He was shocked when Ministry staff and director-general Chai Chuah proceeded to ‘‘dump’’ on health board management, Solomon said.
The new board members were told how terrible the management was and that Ministry staff were traumatised after a Christchurch meeting with them.
Solomon said the behaviour was ‘‘unprofessional’’. He does not accept their comments.
At a meeting in February Solomon told Coleman it was ‘‘patently obvious’’ the board was ‘‘at war’’ with the Ministry and a cross-agency meeting was needed urgently.
Solomon said Coleman backed him to proceed with the plan, told board members this – and invitations went out.
Yet in Parliamentary question time last week Coleman said a cross-agency group would be ‘‘redundant’’ as it would ‘‘re-litigate decisions’’, Coleman said.
Chuah rejected the idea outright in early correspondence.
Solomon did not know if it would happen. ‘‘That’s not my job now,’’ he said.
He was convinced management did everything possible to meet Ministry expectations, but were treated unfairly.
Asked to respond, Ministry of Health director of critical projects Michael Hundleby said ‘‘like Treasury, the Ministry is concerned about CDHB’s management of its serious financial challenges’’.
Elected CDHB member Jo Kane said Coleman appointing Wood as chairman ‘‘trampled all over Ta Mark’s mana’’.
‘‘[Solomon] has done a great job and I had expected, with all of his experience, Ta Mark was the man for the job.’’
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell said failing to keep Solomon on as chairman was an ‘‘attempt to intimidate’’ him.
‘‘If I was the DHB’s Chief Executive David Meates, who has consistently raised with much frankness the challenges and realities of trying to provide health care without enough resourcing post-quakes, then I’d be wondering if I too have a target on my back.’’
Labour health spokesman David Clark said it was unusual for such appointments to be made so close to an election and the move was ‘‘constitutionally concerning’’. ‘‘It doesn’t feel right given the existing tensions that someone has been put in over the top of Mark Solomon who has done such a good representing the people of Canterbury.’’
Wood has been a career diplomat and a chief negotiator for major Treaty of Waitangi settlement claims. He has served on boards of organisations including the Canterbury University and Lincoln University councils, and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia.
He said he did not yet know how he would resolve the tensions.
For the South Canterbury DHB, Coleman appointed Ron Luxton as the new chairman and Paul Annear as deputy chair.