Media statement
For immediate release
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Dunne calls for radical overhaul of Wgton DHB
Ohariu-Belmont MP Peter Dunne says it’s now apparent that Capital and Coast District Health Board is irreparably
dysfunctional and it’s time the Minister of Health sacked the Board and replaced it with a Commissioner.
“Recent revelations of systemic failures at Wellington Hospital show that clinicians, nurses, management and the Board
are all engaged in what appears to be civil war – a war that can only be ended by outside intervention,” he said.
“I speak not as an associate Minister of Health but as a Wellington MP for the past two decades watching the situation
at our major regional hospital getting worse and worse, despite more and more resources being pumped into the health
system.
“By contrast, the Hutt Valley District Health Board runs its operations very smoothly and professionally.
“It may be that after a Commissioner has had two years to sort out Wellington’s mess, the two DHB’s could be
amalgamated, under the leadership of the Hutt DHB, to ensure that the people of the greater Wellington region get the
professional health services they are paying for,” said Mr Dunne.
ENDS