The Star: February 09, 2017
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6 Thursday <strong>February</strong> 9 <strong>2017</strong><br />
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
News<br />
Health decisions being made<br />
From Canterbury’s<br />
mental health crisis, to<br />
the biggest rebuild of<br />
public health facilities in<br />
New Zealand’s history –<br />
the health board made<br />
decisions last year which<br />
will shape Canterbury’s<br />
future. Yet almost every<br />
decision was made<br />
behind closed doors.<br />
Gabrielle Stuart reports<br />
BEHIND THE big, round table<br />
which dominates the Canterbury<br />
District Health Board boardroom,<br />
is a row of chairs – the<br />
public seats.<br />
Aside from journalists or<br />
CDHB staff, they almost always<br />
sit empty.<br />
It is little wonder they do.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is usually very little to<br />
observe.<br />
Last year, the health board had<br />
11 scheduled board meetings,<br />
many lasting for most of the day.<br />
But throughout that time, only<br />
six decisions were debated and<br />
decided in the public section of<br />
the meetings – and most of those<br />
were little more than rubberstamping.<br />
<strong>The</strong> important issues were<br />
saved until the closed section of<br />
the meeting, after the public are<br />
asked to leave, the media file out<br />
and the big doors to the board<br />
room swing shut.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n the real debate begins.<br />
In the past year the board has<br />
agonised over the health board’s<br />
finances and where budgets<br />
should be boosted or cut, battled<br />
with the Ministry of Health over<br />
funding, and decided how to<br />
respond to November’s North<br />
Canterbury Earthquake – all<br />
behind closed doors.<br />
In the December meeting<br />
alone, there were 14 things to<br />
discuss in the public excluded<br />
section of the meeting.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y ranged from a business<br />
case for Canterbury’s mental<br />
health services, to a proposal<br />
for the hospital Park and Ride<br />
service.<br />
District health<br />
board member Jo<br />
Kane (left) said<br />
she believed far<br />
too much was<br />
being discussed<br />
behind closed doors.<br />
She was particularly concerned<br />
about the financial issues, as the<br />
EMPTY:<br />
<strong>The</strong> CDHB<br />
boardroom<br />
(inset) on Oxford<br />
Tce includes a<br />
row of public<br />
seats to the left,<br />
but they often sit<br />
empty.<br />
health board faces a $38.5 million<br />
budget deficit this year, as well as<br />
issues like mental health.<br />
“I think our community has no<br />
understanding of the precipice<br />
we are standing on,” she said.<br />
“I often sit there in public<br />
excluded meetings saying why<br />
aren’t we talking about this<br />
openly.”<br />
But fellow board member Aaron<br />
Keown disagreed that more<br />
open meetings were needed.<br />
He did not believe the public<br />
cared if an issue was discussed in<br />
an open meeting, because people<br />
rarely went any way.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re’s not a whole lot of interest.<br />
You’re lucky to get a visitor<br />
every three years. You don’t get<br />
the same amount of contact with<br />
the public the council does, and<br />
you don’t get complaints from<br />
the public about things in public<br />
excluded,’ he said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> decision over whether to<br />
discuss a topic in the open meeting<br />
or public excluded session is<br />
made by board chairman Murray<br />
Cleverley and chief executive<br />
David Meates.<br />
Mr Cleverley spoke to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
about the issue before he stepped<br />
down from his role with the<br />
board last week, while conflict<br />
of interest allegations were<br />
investigated by the State Services<br />
Commission.<br />
Mr Cleverley and two others,<br />
Gerard Gallagher and Simon<br />
Nikoloff, are accused of negotiating<br />
property deals through their<br />
own private company in 2014,<br />
while they were employed by the<br />
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery<br />
Authority to bring public investment<br />
into the city.<br />
Speaking to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> in<br />
January, Mr Cleverley said the<br />
health board had a responsibility<br />
to be transparent, and took that<br />
seriously.<br />
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