Hypocritical political double standard over Ministry’s financial bungle

“How can the Ministry of Health’s mandarins hold out their caps for more money to refurbish their offices when the people of Greymouth are struggling to get enough funding to ensure their hospital is safe in an earthquake?”

That’s the reaction from Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) to media reports of the Ministry of Health’s $18 million financial bungle over the refurbishment of its offices and a reported unsuccessful bid to recoup the costs from district health board (DHB) budgets (http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/298422/govt-misspending-kept-secret-labour and http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/77675932/health-ministry-sought-to-recoup-costs-of-18m-bungle-from-dhb-budgets).

“It is an unacceptable hypocritical double standard given the decision last month to delay the rebuild of Grey Hospital because of a relatively small budget over-run,” he says. (http://www.asms.org.nz/news/asms-news/2016/02/04/senior-doctors-want-explanation-for-decision-to-delay-grey-hospital-rebuild/ andhttp://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/76520643/greymouth-hospital-delay-another-bad-news-story-for-the-west-coast--mayor).

“The amount of budget over-run in that instance was due to previously undetected earthquake vulnerability, and was small (up to $2 million) in relation to the overall cost of $68 million for the rebuild project. It was an incomprehensible decision to put the project on hold, especially given the importance of the hospital to local people.

“It defies logic,” says Mr Powell. “The Government’s actions will be a particularly bitter pill for patients, senior doctors and other health professionals living and working on the West Coast.”

ENDS

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