Wake up call for Ministry of Health

“The Ministry of Health needs to urgently repair its damaged relationship with Canterbury District Health Board if its senior leadership is to work effectively with senior doctors and hospital managers there,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

He was commenting on media reports that senior doctors at Christchurch Hospital had launched a rare strong public criticism on the Ministry of Health, accusing it of wilful blindness to the state of its emergency department and labelling as a “whitewash” an inquiry that cleared a senior ministry official, Michael Hundleby, of being misleading: .

The Director-General of Health, Chai Chuah, has since announced five senior appointments to the Ministry of Health’s leadership team, including Mr Hundleby as the new Director of Critical Projects:
“While it’s not clear what this new role will cover, it’s fair to assume that the Christchurch Hospital rebuild counts as a critical project,” says Mr Powell. “Unfortunately the Director-General’s decision not to allow an independent investigation into to the serious complaint against Mr Hundleby means that he is left with no credibility to be involved in critical projects affecting Canterbury District Health Board (and its clinically and leadership aligned neighbouring West Coast DHB).

Mr Powell added that respected Canterbury senior doctors had been denied the opportunity to have their compliant seriously considered and Mr Hundleby had been denied the right to have his name cleared if the complaint had been erroneous in some way.

“It’s essential that senior Ministry officials are able to understand the unique circumstances facing the Canterbury DHB and the pressures senior doctors and other health professionals there are working under.

“In return, senior doctors and hospital managers need to have faith in the Ministry’s processes and people. Sadly, that is no longer the case in Christchurch, and it should be a wake-up call to the Ministry that it needs to repair the relationship.”