Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:645;Page:14303] 
6.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Which clinicians at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board have told him that there are “continuing apparent tensions within the present board and its clinicians”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) 
: 
 My primary responsibility is for the overall health and well-being of the people of Hawke’s Bay. I have received correspondence from a number of clinicians concerning Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and from others. However I am not prepared to breach the confidence of the persons who provided me with necessary information without their consent at this time. There are clearly tensions within the present board. Information on this has also been widely reported in the media. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is it not the case that the Minister will not detail the people who gave him this false information because he is joining the whitewash to protect his colleague Annette King; or did he just make it up? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: No; and no. 
Lesley Soper 
: Has the Minister any information on the financial position of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: A great deal. I am concerned and disturbed by the apparent trends. In July last year the forward projection from the district health board was that at the end of this financial year the fiscal outcome would be in balance. The most recent projection for this outcome is now for a deficit of $7.7 million. To correct this clearly requires a united and fully functioning governance structure management and clinical team. 
Barbara Stewart 
: Does the Minister consider that working on a “day-to-day basis” is in the best interests of either the patients or the staff of the district health board; if not why is the appointment of a chairman being delayed indefinitely? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: As the member may be aware there is a governance review process under way and I do not mind saying to the House that I had expected to receive that report from the director-general at an earlier time. I am advised that there have been significant delays in that process for legal reasons and with the recent deterioration of the situation the member may have a point. 
Chris Tremain 
: How can the New Zealand health community trust the Minister when Dr David Lawson a senior surgeon at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board said: “Mr Cunliffe implied that the clinical staff at HB Hospital were unhappy with the board …” and “This could not be further from the truth.”; I ask the Minister what game he is playing and what the reason is for trying to drive a wedge between the board and senior management staff? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: The good doctor may wish to consult some of his senior clinical colleagues who have written and spoken to me in completely the opposite direction. 
Lesley Soper 
: Is it true that the chair of the district health board was quoted in this morning’s  
Dominion Post  
as saying the Minister “is trying to set the scene to bag the district health board.”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Apparently so. Such reported press statements are of course not the normal way in which district health board chairs communicate with their Minister. It is perhaps indicative of the tensions I alluded to earlier and I expect not to see this style of communication repeated. 
Craig Foss 
: How can the health community trust the Minister when the chairman of the senior medical staff at the Hawke’s Bay Hospital John Rose said the Minister’s statements “took me … by surprise. We’re not aware of any tension between the senior clinicians and our board. It would appear this statement is completely unfounded.”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: The gentleman concerned has clearly not consulted his colleagues thoroughly many of whom have consulted me. 
Heather Roy 
: On what date will the Minister announce his appointees to the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and allow it to form the required committees to plan and to provide some certainty to its staff and the Hawke’s Bay public or does he intend to leave it vulnerable and set up to fail as part of a deliberate campaign to discredit the board and its chair? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: In respect of the last part of the question no and I take exception to the implication. In respect of the first part of the question as soon as is practicably possible consistent with due legal process. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is not what is happening here typical of Labour—driving an imaginary division between the clinicians and the board as the start of the whitewash to protect Annette King and scapegoat the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: No. 
Chris Tremain 
: I seek leave to table the article in this morning’s  
Dominion Post 
 which says “Surgeons dismiss— 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that article. Is there any objection? Yes there is objection.