KEY POINTS:
The fate of the Auckland health bosses who presided over the medical laboratory contract fiasco remains unclear, as the Government stalls on deciding whether to sack or back them.
Health Minister Pete Hodgson would not discuss the issue yesterday and it was left to Prime Minister Helen Clark
to reveal that questions about whether heads rolled would be put to one side for now.
She said there was a chance one of the parties involved in the $560 million laboratory contract ruled invalid by the High Court could choose to appeal against the judgment.
"The period for appeal needs to run its course, I think, before more thought is given to those issues," she said.
The right to appeal ends on April 19.
The signing of a new 18-month laboratory contract last week prompted Mr Hodgson to say he would consider the issue of his confidence in the health boards over the weekend.
The lack of any decision after that was yesterday slammed by National Party health spokesman Tony Ryall.
Mr Ryall said waiting for the appeal period to expire looked like an excuse to protect the Government's appointees on the Auckland health boards which signed the contract.
"If there are appeals they could take years [so] the people whose behaviour caused this fiasco will never be held accountable for it."
Senior doctors called for the resignations of Auckland DHB chairman Wayne Brown and his deputy Ross Keenan at the weekend, and questioned whether the pair's credibility had been dented.
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists said the boards had wasted millions of dollars of public money and it was untenable to think the men could keep their positions.
Last night the association's executive director Ian Powell said there was some risk in the Government waiting to make a decision.
"That's clearly the Government's call, but the longer that those primarily responsible for this debacle remain in their current positions, the more it is going to undermine confidence in the DHBs," Mr Powell said.
He said doctors were stunned that Mr Keenan and Mr Brown could "make such a monumental misjudgment".
Helen Clark said she had no information about whether the DHBs were considering appealing.
She sidestepped a suggestion that she tell them it would be an unhelpful move.
"They have to be allowed to exercise their legal rights under their own judgment. We can't tell them one way or another what to do."
Mr Hodgson and the Ministry of Health are continuing to talk to the boards to understand what happened and why, the PM said.
Aspects of the court's decision relating to inadequate consultation over the laboratory contract had "raised quite a lot of eyebrows", she said.
"I think they really need to be talking with their legal advisers about what the best way forward is."
