Heather Roy's Diary
act-new-zealand
Fri Oct 05 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Heather Roy's Diary
Friday, 5 October 2007, 12:34 am
Press Release: ACT New Zealand
Heather Roy's Diary
Thousands Of Health Dollars Wasted On Bureaucracy This week saw the delivery of information, which I had requested under the Official Information Act, revealing just how much it has cost the nation's District Health Boards to belong to District Health Boards New Zealand.
DHBNZ is the representative body for New Zealand's Health Boards and was set up to co-ordinate Health Board activities at a national level. Until recently, was exempt from the Official Information Act. The information I received this week was (to the best of my knowledge) the first to be released by DHBNZ since the exemption was lifted, and it made for some interesting - and disturbing - reading.
According to this information, Boards around the country spent a total of $723,040 - in membership fees - to be a member of DHBNZ in the 2006/07 financial year. This consisted of tens of thousands of dollars from 20 of the 21 DHBs with Canterbury, Waitemata and Counties-Manukau DHBs spending the most - $89,280, $86,560 and $80,320 respectively.
Having inserted record layers of bureaucracy into the system, Labour's management of public health is a shambles. Thousands of people throughout the country are currently awaiting treatment that they should have had long ago, with many having been referred back to their GPs for care so that the Government can slash the numbers on hospital waiting lists.
Provision of treatment relies, in part, on a Board's ability to fund it. Given that $723,040 is more than enough to pay for 25 Coronary Bypasses, 48 Hip Replacements operations, 241 cataract operations, or provide 628 grommets procedures for children, questions must be asked as to whether this money is being spent wisely. For people waiting in pain for these procedures, DHBNZ extravagances will surely seem a complete waste of money.
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Evidence to date points to a lack of value for money: in July 2005 Auckland DHB voted to withdraw from DHBNZ, with Chair Wayne Brown being quoted in media reports as saying the Auckland Board did not feel it was "necessarily getting good value from it". According to the same report, minutes from a previous meeting stated that the Board was concerned that the DHBNZ governance structure was not robust.
This year the Canterbury Board followed the same path, voting at its July 13 2007 meeting to withdraw from DHBNZ. Like its predecessor, Canterbury included a lack of value for money in its reasons for pulling out - one media organisation reported that CDHB was paying $1 million a year to belong to DHBNZ which, according to Chair Syd Bradley, was not value for money and diverted resources from providing healthcare.
Further, Mr Bradley also reportedly wrote a letter slamming DHBNZ, describing it as a "flawed and unaccountable" entity that forced Canterbury to "divert funding from patient services". He went on to say that DHBNZ was established with a "very loose constitution ... the fee structure kept rising. The CEOs got more scope than they should have been able to have. It took on a life of its own. It's as big as 'Ben Hur'. Now it's running conferences".
Mr Bradley should know: he was the Chair of District Health Boards New Zealand for several years, from its inception in 2002.
So are the Health dollars being poured into DHBNZ money well spent? It would appear not. The problem is that, for so long, DHBNZ was largely unavailable for public scrutiny - meaning it will take time to ascertain just what value DHBs and their communities are getting for the hundreds of thousands of Health dollars that DHBNZ devours every year.
Current Canterbury Board CEO Gordon Davies said at the time that Canterbury withdrew from DHBNZ that Boards were now: "more mature organisations" that could take on many projects and activities themselves, and the current restructuring of the Health Ministry would mean "new ways of working" for everyone.
The removal of the body's exemption from the Official Information Act is the first step; soon more information will come to light and the onus now is on DHBNZ and its members to front up to the public.
DHBNZ and its remaining members must show the public that there is some benefit to this enormous diversion of funds away from patient care. If it cannot, then all that is happening is that hundreds of thousands of Health dollars - which could be better spent - are being wasted on yet another pointless and futile layer of bureaucracy and DHBNZ should be disbanded.
Lest We Forget - Rugby And Passchendale The coming week is auspicious in more ways than one: as rugby world cup fever sweeps the country, Kiwis are looking forward to an All Blacks win (touch wood) and also back to October 12 1917 and the Battle of Passchendale.
During the month of October 1917, 3,700 New Zealanders lost their lives around Passchendale in Belgium. Among them was Dave Gallaher: Sergeant in the Auckland Regiment of the NZEF; Captain of the 1905 All Blacks 'Originals'.
Sgt Gallaher began his rugby career as a hooker in the old scrum formation. Before the war he was a stalwart of the Ponsonby Rugby Club, winning the Auckland Senior Championship with the club in 1897. Gallaher played 26 representative matches for Auckland from 1896-1909, including the first Ranfurly Shield match against Wellington. He went on to captain the All Blacks 'Originals' in their celebrated 1905-06 tour of Britain, France and North America.
On October 4 1917, however, Sergeant Dave Gallaher was a long way from the rugby world. In drizzly rain he, with the Second Battalion, had advanced through the deep mud of a small river and up the slopes to take over from the leading battalions for the second stage of the attack on Graventafel Spur. As they took over, they came under heavy fire from a German stronghold. During that successful - but costly - attack, Sgt Gallaher was mortally wounded and died just hours later.
One of 13 former All Blacks killed during World War I, Sgt Gallaher was buried at Nine Elms Cemetery in Poperinge. His name lives on in the Gallaher Shield - awarded to the winner of Auckland's Premier club competition since 1922 - and All Black teams touring France visit his grave to pay homage. His grave is also frequently visited by rugby teams and fans as they pass through the region.
As Terry McLean wrote in his 1987 book 'New Zealand Rugby Legends': "In death, he acquired a mystique. His grave became a shrine."
ENDS
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