Despite the water inquiry and symposium, minute consideration has been given to basic security, as in protection from vandals, or unlawful interfering with malice. For example the unpadlocked lid of a bore head.
Repetitive contamination transgressions illustrated ignorance of "risk" and duty of care by professionals at all levels, employed or engaged by our statutory stake holders, to provide safe drinking water to a vulnerable public.
After 9/11 the United States re-examined the security of its community assets including water and health from a national perspective. If one community resource is contaminated other communities are burdened to assist.
Duty of Care. We have a lawyer who serves on both council and the hospital board. A risk analyst who should be constantly alert to peril. Our mayor has publically stated he was a water engineer serving on the council prior to the 1998 campylobacter outbreak.
We have doctors and a Hospital CEO who are professional, safe drinking water experts in their field. Their professional expertise imposes a greater legal expectation. Their position closer proximity to "risk". They are bound by duty of care to identify foreseeable causes of contamination and security and to take action to avoid harm and death.
Hospital security is no different. Hospital security is concerned about "shortcutters" through grounds and corridors particularly in wet weather. They deal with vandalism, "superbugs", mental health issues and those accompanying patients dealing with violence and substance abuse. "Hydraulic opportunists" will lift anything, including vital equipment. And unpredictable people with extremist political views have copycat attitudes and grudges.
Hawke's Bay Hospital is not a thoroughfare or a destination to pass time. If the Health Board is serious about security every person should have a lawful purpose to be on hospital property. Youths unaccompanied by an accountable adult should be treated as trespassers.
On a typical day HBDHB spends over $two million - yes a day - treating patients and paying the largest staff in Hawke's Bay.
You cannot protect the public's precious toanga on the cheap. What is the HBDHB's security budget in relation to the healthcare budget blowout caused by public health officer-monitored, contaminated water?
The Havelock North Water Contamination Inquiry alleged the Hastings District Council and its co stakeholders failed, or neglected, 51 opportunities to remedy the cause of multiple contamination transgressions in Havelock North's water supply, which led to the largest outbreak of campylobacter in the world.
Duty of care is to do or not do something that may cause harm or loss to someone else. Statutory bodies and territorial authorities may delegate statutory tasks, for example security, but they, in this case the Hawke's Bay Hospital Board, cannot delegate their duty of care. The board members and management must by law ultimately shoulder this responsibility to ensure security functions to the maximum extent practicable.
The youths interfering with hospital staff cars and the chapel may seem small change, for now, but already there lurks within our country, neighbourhood and the corridors of our wonderful hospital another level of distraction, crime and potential terrorism we have yet to contend with.
Those who attended the water inquiry experienced airport-like security check- in at the court house.
Let's not wait for 51 opportunities to pass. Instead HBDHB, you are assured of 100 per cent public support, take the "now" opportunity to beef up with belts and braces our regional hospital's security, starting with a comprehensive risk analysis, trespass signage, and response resources, essential to protect our region's second-most precious toanga.
Barry Erickson is a former Chief Inspector (Compliance) New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board and is now retired.
