Laws on Labtests debacle
Michael Laws actually makes some very valid points with regards to the Labtests debacle. To quote him in the SST:
… which was the most remarkable feature of Justice Asher’s High Court judgement last week. His clear and concise ruling condemned the three combined health boards that got it so wrong, but also, by implication, the Ministry of Health, the Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit and other central government monitoring agencies that let them do so.
In fact, the Nats have yet to make the proper political connections. It was the Labour government who appointed the chairpersons of all these boards. It was the Labour government who put their own flunkies on – in addition to those elected – to make sure that these kind of stuff-ups didn’t happen. And it was central government bureaucrats who were supposed to ensure nothing bad occurred on the health minister’s watch.
Third, there are too many hospitals and health boards. This is Hodgson’s greatest failure. He is intent upon preserving the status quo for political, but not health, reasons. He is wrong. There should be a maximum of eight health boards and an aggregation of public hospitals.
Finally, there are complete dunderheads running our hospitals and health boards. In part, that is because there are too many health boards. Currently we have under-qualified chief executives and senior managers who do not possess the intellectual, commercial or political acumen to make good decisions.
The elected membership of health boards is not much better. Add the government-appointed board members – with the prerequisite PC nod to women and minorities – and the wonder is that there are not more Auckland Labtests disasters. Not less.
To be fair, central government knows this. They trust district health boards like the ICC trusts Pakistani cricket. So they have appointed a galaxy of public health bureaucrats to scrutinise and second-guess every DHB initiative. The scrutiny is suffocating.
Which is why the Labtests result is so embarrassing for this Labour government. They had their pilots on the bridge. They had their appointees in the key health board positions. They approved the awarding of the contract.
Their late attempt to cast Dr Bierre as the villain of the piece won’t wash. He did what every other DHB health professional does. He protected his back. He then protected his front as well.
All while his bureaucratic monitors slept on the job. And while Auckland’s health board officials slumbered with them. Unless Pete Hodgson demands their collective heads, then the only true casualty will be the minister’s reputation as a political fixer. Because the portfolio has just fixed him.