KEY POINTS:
National thinks it has caught Labour out on a hidden agenda to force the amalgamations of district health boards.
"Behind closed doors," says National's health spokesman Tony Ryall, "Labour appears to be working on a plan to forcibly amalgamate some DHBs, and proposals are already at the point that they're making their way through Cabinet."
Mr Ryall yesterday provided a transcript of comments by Health Minister David Cunliffe to a conference a fortnight ago in which the minister appeared to indicate he would act on what the audience considered to be an excessive number of DHBs.
"I've been working overdrive in the last wee while. I've got a lot of stuff going through Cabinet and we will be making announcements before the election," Mr Cunliffe told the conference.
He yesterday released the same transcript, including the next paragraph, in which he had argued against both "wholesale structural slaughter" and DHBs "needlessly reinventing the wheel on stuff that should be done once".
He said yesterday that while he supported greater collaboration between health boards, that did not equate to reducing the number of DHBs.
"There are 21 DHBs now and there will be 21 DHBs into the foreseeable future," he said.
