7. Southern District Health Board—PerformanceDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of HealthSouthern District Health Board—PerformanceDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): Thank you. My question is to the Minister of Health—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! I just need to ask that the conversation cease so that Dr David Clark can ask his question.7. Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of Health: Does he agree with the authors of an open letter to him reported on Checkpoint yesterday that comments he made on Southern District Health Board suggesting one of our departments is 'toxic'" and that the district health board "is a 'cot case' are particularly unhelpful"; if so will he now apologise for those comments?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): The comments that the member is referring to have been plucked from a 14-minute interview that I did last Friday. With regard to the first comment that is how matters had been described to me. I also said in the interview that the reason we had to put a commissioner into the Southern District Health Board (DHB) was that it was a cot case. Turning around the Southern DHB was never going to be fast or easy. But I am pleased to say that thanks to the hard work of the commissioner the new chief executive (CE) and the 4500 staff the DHB is on a long-term track to sustainability. The Government is working on the indicative business case for Dunedin hospital. The facility needs upgrading and this Government is determined to make that happen.Dr David Clark: Does he think it is acceptable that one-third of orthopaedic patients at the Southern DHB are unable to be seen and are referred back to their GP because of a lack of capacity?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: As with any assertion that that member makes we would have to go and check that; he was wrong on the intensive care unit (ICU) beds. But the fact is that across the country out of all those patients referred from general practitioners for first-specialist assessments 87 percent see a specialist about 5 percent are turned away and another 8 percent have just been inappropriately referred or their time has passed. Thanks.Dr David Clark: I seek leave to table a letter not publicly available sent to the Minister yesterday which references—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Members know the letter. I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular open letter to the Minister. Is there any objection to it being tabled? There is none; it can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Dr David Clark: Is he concerned that as part of the cost-cutting measures at the Southern DHB clinicians are improvising by modifying their own equipment including a pair of hardware store vice grips used in surgery one of the 112 non-registered medical devices removed from southern hospitals by the end of last year?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I would have to go and check all of that. I would expect the CE to look into it. So I am not aware of the claims that he is making.Dr David Clark: In light of his acknowledgment that there is a shortage of ICU beds in the Southern DHB does he think that it is appropriate for financial penalties to be imposed on the DHB when it fails to meet its targets?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Let us be very clear: there are eight ICU beds there. They have just approved another one. But crucially they will be able to double the capacity to 18 by next August and the fact is that there are not financial penalties.Dr David Clark: Has he seen a draft of the urology report being circulated at the Southern DHB?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: No. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have not."