Website: www.democrats.org.nz

Media Release

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Minister of Health turns his back on crucial issues

“Serious patient safety concerns being raised with Tony Ryall have resulted in the Minister issuing a denial that he is in any way responsible for such matters” said Democrats for Social Credit health spokesman David Tranter.

“Following extensive concerns raised by health professionals employed by the West Coast DHB I wrote to Tony Ryall backing those concerns and detailing some of my own negative experiences in trying to raise issues with Coast DHB management” Mr. Tranter said.

“The Minister’s sole response (attachment to this email) is to ignore every issue raised and stating that, “The matters you raise about West Coast DHB are internal issues for the DHB……As Minister of Health, it is inappropriate for me to intervene in such issues. You may wish to contact the DHB directly with your concerns.

“Given that my letter (attached below) made it clear that health professionals such as former long-term anaesthetist Judy Forbes, and myself as a former board member had tried to raise concerns with the DHB Mr. Ryall knows full well that telling me to contact the DHB “directly” is utterly futile and is no more than a cowardly cop-out by him. As I informed Mr. Ryall Judy Forbes as an internationally respected health professional is willing to discuss these matters with him but his dismissive response indicates that he simply doesn’t want to know.

“It is a tragic indictment of the attitude of the Minister to his portfolio that despite a long - and continuing - history of safety concerns raised by West Coast DHB health professionals Mr. Ryall continues to evade these crucial issues” Mr. Tranter concluded.

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Letter sent to Tony Ryall;

31.5.12.

Dear Mr. Ryall,

I have attached below my recent letter sent to you at Parliament and which received the standard response that it would be referred to Ministry officials - which, as we both know, means a cursory glance and another standard response at a later date.

Having been involved in health issues from the community point of view for over 20 years - especially on the West Coast - I appeal to you to read my letter and to take some action before the Coast loses any more very professional and experienced staff through un-caring, incompetent management. I also attach (following in red) the latest of messages I continue to receive from people well placed to know what is going on behind the scenes in the WCDHB - and which has been very much the norm for many years. I emphasise that this is one of many such communications from different people and which paint a consistent picture of the management attitude towards health professionals on the Coast.

Yours sincerely,
David Tranter.

1. Two staff members have been made redundant in the 2011/12 financial year, only for similar positions that they would have been able to be redeployed to being advertised in a short period of time after they were paid out. This is against the DHB internal policy & must breach employment law.

2. Redundancy payments have also been paid to staff who have had job offers at other places, to encourage them to accept the jobs.

3. Reports of bullying from the CEO yelling at and belittling senior staff, senior staff yelling at and threatening the job security of their staff and a bullying culture creating a situation where staff are too scared to take sick leave have gone uninvestigated.

4. Workplace injuries have gone uninvestigated and serious injuries have not been reported to the Department of Labour.

Given the current bullying climate at the DHB please excuse my nom de-plume, I am a current employee and have witnessed several of the incidents of bullying, including the bullying of staff members who have reported incidents.

………………………………........
Dear Mr. Ryall

Since first getting involved in New Zealand health issues in 1991, particularly concerning rural matters, I have seen the disastrous results of what began as Simon Upton’s health-as-a-business approach and which has been continued via the subsequent corporate management regime under successive governments.

Central to the changes is the way in which medical people’s views of how hospitals, to take one example, should be run as their practical knowledge has been supplanted by the host of inappropriately qualified and experienced managers who have taken control.
I know this from having spoken to many well-informed health professionals over the intervening years - some of whom still communicate with me regarding their on-going concerns with the current management systems.

Of course there are exceptions amongst management but generally speaking the clear message repeatedly conveyed to me by health professionals is that management respect for health professionals’ views and knowledge has been largely lost.

I now refer to the West Coast health system which I first became involved in around 1995. During this time I have observed, twice as an elected member of the DHB board there, the breakdown of cooperation between the corporate management approach and health professionals. I have seen a succession of highly experienced and very capable health professionals treated with contempt by so-called managers lacking all understanding of the ethical basis upon which dedicated health professionals act. I recall in the early 1990s when highly respected Dunedin Mike Hunter apologised to the public in the Otago Daily Times for leaving the public system and going into the private sector because, as he said, he could not do his job properly under the public system management. I also recall a long-serving Oamaru Hospital nurse writing to me saying that 17 public hospital nurses who were not re-applying for their jobs were “great” nurses who could not bring themselves to work under the new management regime. This has gone on ever since as evidenced by my own experience and by my network of health contacts around New Zealand.

The corporate management approach was, for me, most appallingly illustrated by West Coast management’s treatment of an outstanding and hugely experienced and versatile anaesthetist, Judy Forbes, who worked for over 20 years at Grey Hospital and who is welcomed with open arms wherever she works around the world - including voluntary service in war zones and in Third World countries. Here is a professional whose dedication and expertise cannot be questioned, yet when she attempted to raise serious safety concerns at Grey Hospital in 2008 her approaches to management were treated with utter contempt by a CEO - one Kevin Hague - who had no relevant experience whatsoever of running such a thing as a public Hospital. And just to complete the ludicrous response to her concerns when this was brought to the attention of the then DHB chair, one Rex Williams (who admitted to the board when government appointed him that he knew nothing about health - but he did know about the manufacture of cement!) he gave Judy Forbes three minutes to address the board - an obviously ludicrous amount of time to explain very serious and complex issues. When this was over Mr. Williams made it obvious he had nothing but contempt for her views with the result that she has never worked at Grey Hospital again. I should add that another experienced and long-serving anaesthetist also resigned from Grey Hospital at the same time. Clearly, Mr. Williams regarded Kevin Hague’s views as the be-all and end-all of the matter - a clear case of the blind leading the blind.

This was possibly the worst such case I know of but there is a long history on the Coast of health professionals personally known to me, both in the mental health field and general health care who have raised safety and other care concerns and who have subsequently been so appallingly treated by management that they left the Coast whether of their own choice or by being effectively sacked.

As another example of WCDHB management attitudes towards innovative health professionals I cite the case of Dr. Buzz Burrell who was, for many years, the G.P. who ran Reefton Hospital and G.P. clinic. Dr. Burrell devised a scheme for streamlining management of the Reefton service which would not only improve the service but would save enough money to provide free patient care to everyone in the Reefton/Inangahua District. I know it was feasible because I carefully studied a copy of the plan and could not find any fault with it - it would have worked. But by showing that a very busy G.P. could come up with such a scheme it would have highlighted the inability of management to devise such a scheme - so management simply rejected it.

In writing this I have no vested interest. I continue as the NZ Democrats’ health spokesman but in doing so from Australia I obviously have no political ambitions.

I have never worked in the health sector but having been deeply involved from the community point of view for over 20 years I believe I have a deep understanding of the changes in that time. I would also advise you that when I was advocate for a Christchurch patient I met Gordon Davies as Canterbury ceo and without any prompting from me he told me that when he was with the Ministry West Coast management were the “worst” they had to deal with in all New Zealand.

As just one example of my personal experiences with Greymouth management, being known as supportive of people with mental health problems one day I received a phone call from a very desperate-sounding woman who lived in a rural area in the Grey District and who said she could not get any mental health assistance. I rang the DHB mental health office and explained the situation. who told me I had to ring the mental health manager, Hecta Williams. I did so and got a recorded message (it was during office hours) so I left a message and rang around some contacts to see if I could get assistance (we are, after all, told that all mental health-related calls for help must be taken seriously and acted on urgently). After several calls I managed to get a district nurse to talk to the woman who had called me and I gather that she managed to calm matters. Next day, 17 hours after my urgent message was left on Hecta Williams’ phone she rang me and actually reprimanded me for not ringing the mental health emergency number - to which I replied that I didn’t know it and that the mental health office hadn‘t mentioned it. Her response was to tell me the number was published in the local paper. Her entire attitude was aggressively critical of me - for seeking help for a mental health patient!

I appeal to you as Minister of Health to look beyond the sort of carefully orchestrated visits I know have been arranged for your benefit when you have visited the West Coast.
Judy Forbes is willing to talk to you about these issues.
I am also willing to discuss these matters, albeit by email.

Yours sincerely,
David Tranter.

ENDS

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