Minister of Health reiterates his call for Heather Roy to apologise

Minister of Health David Cunliffe has today reiterated his call for Heather Roy to either provide information to support the allegation she made in Parliament last week or apologise to the staff at Capital and Coast DHB.

“I understand that Ms Roy has yet to present any evidence to support her claims.” Mr Cunliffe said.

He said he was disappointed that instead of offering either an apology or evidence Ms Roy was now attempting to alter history by claiming she asked an entirely different question in parliament about waiting lists.

“Ms Roy asked a very specific allegation about 14 people dying because as she alleged Capital and Coast cancelled their surgery. So far we have not found any evidence to support this claim.”

Ms Roy then claimed on the weekend to have asked the following question in parliament last week.

“Has he personally been advised of any of the deaths of patients on waiting lists for tertiary surgery at Wellington Hospital in the past year?

Transcripts from last week’s question time show no record of Ms Roy having asked this question.

“The clinical staff at Capital and Coast are under considerable pressure and they do not deserve to have a member of parliament make specific allegations and then fail to back them.”

“As I said on Friday I am happy to investigate the claim Ms Roy made, and have invited her to expedite matters by supplying information. Unfortunately she has failed to do this and now appears to be trying to back away from her allegation.”

ENDS

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