Flavell Te Ururoa: Urgent Debates — Hawke’s Bay District Health Board—Appointment of Commissioner 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Urgent Debates — Hawke’s Bay District Health Board—Appointment of Commissioner 
[Volume:645;Page:14543] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Three days ago a really comical press release was issued under the name of the Director-General of Health. The humour came in the statement from the director-general advising that the inquiry into conflict of interest issues in the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board would be released in just over a fortnight. It said: “it is important to follow due process” and further “I have acted to protect the integrity of the process involved in the report’s release”. 
Due process and integrity are concepts that have been sadly lacking in this saga at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. Other members have described the involvement of the former Minister of Health her husband and Mr Peter Hausmann. During the course of events as is now known that Government-appointed member of the board was found to have involved himself in a $50 million district health board tendering process that could have benefited his own company. Following yet another leaked email discussion the chairperson of the board discovered the contractual negotiations that were going on and an embarrassed Government was forced to call for an inquiry. 
One might have thought that things would quieten down give or take the odd employment dispute that ensued from the fiasco. Time rolled on and at the local government elections the people of Hawke’s Bay responded by universally re-electing the board and its chair. In rode the keen new Minister of Health Mr David Cunliffe determined to leave his mark. He sacked the entire board claiming that it was dysfunctional and that the concerns were warranted over the “rapidly deteriorating” financial situation. 
The Maori Party is one of the first parties to say that accountability and transparency are laudable goals—goals that every agent of Government should take seriously. If governance and management issues are at stake we would expect there to be support and investment to get any district health board back on to the right track. But—and it is an important but—such measures should never ride roughshod over the wishes and aspirations of the people. What did the people living in the rohe of Ngati Kahungunu have to say about their district health board? What did Maori health providers in the area think about the way that their district health board responded to the needs of their community? What does this action say about the respect for democracy? 
This was an election process in which the people voted and selected a board. It was extremely significant that all five mayors of the Hawke’s Bay joined in a joint letter supporting the chair of the board as having “the clear confidence of the community as the highest polling candidate in the October 2007 election”. Those members speaking on behalf of 150000 people should have been listened to yet just 72 days after the re-elected board took office the Government intervened and took actions on high against the people of Hawke’s Bay. As the Napier Public Health Action Group stated recently: “It illustrates the arrogant misuse of power and contempt for democracy that has be-deviled public health provision in Hawkes Bay and Napier in particular for years”. 
If it was good enough for the Minister to sack this district health board for financial management and governance issues let us be consistent here. What about the 182 serious mistakes involving patients? They are mistakes like one patient dying as the result of being prescribed another patient’s diabetes medication a baby dying after showing heart-rate irregularities during labour and a psychiatric in-patient committing suicide. Who would have expected such serious and sentinel events to take place? The problem extended across 12 district health boards with particular concern having been expressed about the Auckland Waikato Canterbury and Waitemata boards. Did we hear anything about the sacking of those people? No. What about the study by Professor Peter Davis who surveyed a sample of 6579 patients admitted to 13 hospitals and found that Maori were more likely to receive suboptimal care? What about them? 
Financial debts can be sorted out with the stroke of a pen. If we want to help out an airline or to quickly get some funds pulled out in order to win some votes in an election year the money does not seem to be very much of a problem then. The ongoing serious and sentinel events that have ended in death malpractice and negligence in the largest degree are things that we might consider to be sackable offences. As a Parliament we must insist on safety on quality and on transparency in the way that we run our hospitals. The Maori Party knows that to accept anything less is to compromise on the very quality of life. All of our people deserve to know that when they go to hospital every effort will be made to improve their health and well-being. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Before I call the next speaker I advise the House that the speaker has 5 minutes and I will ring the bell for the member’s benefit when there is 1 minute remaining.