Hip operations make way for payouts

Hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been spent on operations have instead been used to deal with personal grievance cases at the Auckland District Health Board - with one in particular hurting the legal bill.

Figures released under the Official Information Act show that the Auckland DHB faced 15 such claims in the year to the beginning of July.

The total costs from the cases - combining legal, compensation and replacement costs - was $867,907.

Act MP Heather Roy yesterday called the figure "alarming", saying Auckland's total costs were much higher than the 14 other DHBs that supplied her with similar information.

"That's money that should be going into hip operations and cardiac bypasses, not money that should be being fought out in court," she said.

But although the average grievance cost at Auckland was well above the $6738 seen across the other DHBs, it appears one particular case has had a dramatic effect on the figures.

Auckland DHB chairman Wayne Brown last night said the costs had been "skewed totally by one high-profile case" that he could not discuss for legal reasons.

It might account for as much as 80 per cent of the total costs.

Mr Brown said the board had "no option" but to respond to the case, because it was legally required to be a good employer and to offer safe employment conditions.

"We know it's bloody terrible," he said of the amount spent.

Mr Brown said that if the particularly expensive case was not counted, Auckland DHB would be shown to have good morale and hardly any money spent on personal grievances.

"The board consider this to be wasteful expenditure, but it's unavoidable wasteful expenditure."

Act said the money spent could have funded as many as 50 hip replacements, or 31 coronary bypasses.

Mrs Roy said it appeared the Auckland DHB might have decided to fight cases rather than pay people out and get replacements in quickly.


Cost blowout

Personal grievances at Auckland DHB, July 1 2005 - July 1 2006
* Number of cases: 15
* Legal costs: $330,000
* Compensation: $194,907
* Replacement costs: $343,000
* Cost in total: $867,907