Wayne Brown

The HoS has a profile of Auckland DHB Chair Wayne Brown with many comments from friends and foes.

I’m of a mixed mind in regard to the calls for Brown to resign or be sacked.

It’s a political reality that the Opposition needs to hold the Government to account, and when a $500 million contract is struck down by the court, the question of accountability does arise. To a degree the target is the Minister, not Brown and the other Govt appointees. By calling for Brown and co to be sacked, the Minister is the one who gets damaged if he doesn’t hold anyone accountable.

And in the case of Brown, his failure to call for conflict declarations at the beginning of each meeting was a departure from both previous practice and best practice.

But Brown has shown himself extremely proficient over many years at health board governance, and he has helped rescue failing health boards. This doesn’t just mean he has saved the taxpayer money, but by reducing costs in some areas, he actually allows more services to be provided.

It will be interesting to see what the Government does. They already have great problems finding experienced directors to serve on DHBs. If they sack Brown their job will be even harder.