KEY POINTS:
The chairwoman of one of the Auckland regional health boards that signed a discredited $560 million laboratory contract says the Minister of Health, Pete Hodgson, has not expressed any concern to her about the way the matter was handled.
In a testy appearance before a parliamentary select committee yesterday, Waitemata District Health Board's Kay McKelvie said she was proud of what had been achieved by her organisation.
The DHB had already saved $4.8 million since it went down the track of renewing the laboratory testing contract, far outweighing the $500,000 spent on legal fees so far.
"On my calculation that's a 900 per cent return on my investment."
Her vigorous defence follows calls for heads to roll at the top of the three Auckland region DHBs which signed an eight-year contract to provide pathology services - only to see it invalidated in a highly critical High Court judgment.
The matter is now subject to an appeal from Labtests and it could be a year before an outcome is reached.
Last night, the Herald asked Mr Hodgson again whether he had confidence in the chairmen and women of the Auckland, Waitemata, and Counties-Manukau DHBs and, through a spokeswoman, he said he had "no further comment given the processes that are in train now".
Ms McKelvie's first public comments about the contract saga show that her conversations with the Health Minister have not included him raising any concerns about her behaviour.
She repeatedly told the select committee during exchanges with National Party health spokesman Tony Ryall that she had not been asked to resign.
Ms McKelvie said she had no evidence to suggest that Mr Hodgson was not confident in her performance.
"I see no reason why he wouldn't have confidence in me," she said.
"I'm proud of what we've achieved at Waitemata health and I stand to be counted on the results."
At one point during her appearance, a clearly frustrated Ms McKelvie asked if "there any other questions people might like to ask about Waitemata?"
That led Mr Ryall to accuse her of dismissing the contract situation and the committee shortly after broke into an argument as Labour MP Marian Hobbs accused Mr Ryall of harassing Ms McKelvie.
Since the judgment, the Waitemata DHB board has sought legal advice on the involvement of some of its members, with respect to potential conflicts of interest.
Ms McKelvie said "it was a bit grey" for two of the people on the board and she got legal opinions so it was clear what the pair's responsibilities could be.
"I'm doing everything I possibly can to ensure that we don't have issues in the future," she said.
Asked who should be held accountable for the laboratory contract fiasco, Ms McKelvie said she did not feel it was a fiasco.
While she was aware that some members of the public felt there should be accountability, Ms McKelvie said she felt that Diagnostic Medlab - the company which won in the High Court - had excellent "PR".
"I'm not trying to trivialise it," she said.
"I've read the comment which is precisely why we took into account all of those very political, public elements and chose not to appeal."
Ms McKelvie steered clear of criticising the other DHB boards - Auckland and Counties-Manukau - which also signed the contract.
"I'm not going to sit here and dump on my colleagues, what goes around comes around," she said.
As she left the committee hearing, Ms McKelvie said she had arrived there expecting to be harassed and so it had panned out.
"I haven't been disappointed," she said.
* Dr Tony Bierre said yesterday he was not permitted to speak about his departure from the chief executive's job at Lab Tests Auckland.
The Australian owner of Labtests, Healthscope, which bought Dr Bierre's minority share-holding in the company, said on Tuesday that he had decided to resign as chief executive and a director to remove "politicisation" of Lab Tests' bid to provide community laboratory services.
Labtests has filed an appeal against last month's High Court ruling in which its eight-year, $560 million contract with Auckland's three health boards to provide community laboratory services from July 1 was declared invalid.
Dr Bierre told the Herald: "I'm under strict legal instructions not to comment to the media at the moment."
