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Former Hawke's Bay District Health Board member Peter Hausmann has challenged the interests of other former board members in the management of health board commercial contracts.
Hausmann - who is at the centre of an inquiry into the management of his own conflicts of interest at the health board - this week went public claiming the final report which is expected to be released tomorrow would vindicate him.
The Herald on Sunday has learned that the inquiry team scrutinised the board's management of pharmacy-related contracts after its attention was drawn to board member Peter Dunkerley's role as a director of Radius Pharmacy and Radius Healthcare.
"Peter Hausmann told me early on I was a target - I didn't think he'd have the courage to do that," said Dunkerley.
"Pharmacy funding is based on national outcomes - it's the number of patients using your pharmacy which determines the funding."
Former DHB chairman Kevin Atkinson confirmed the review team did look into the management of Dunkerley's conflicts of interests - along with that of two other former board members. But Atkinson expressed confidence in the way the board had handled the conflicts. He expected Dunkerley's role would be commented on when the inquiry report is released tomorrow.
The inquiry was launched after a Herald on Sunday investigation revealed the husband of former health minister Annette King had been accused of pressuring a health board whistleblower who spoke out about an alleged conflict of interest in a deal worth up to $50 million involving Hausmann's company Healthcare New Zealand.
"There was no $50 million contract - there was a proposal for a public-private partnership, a request for proposal (RFP) to consider how that might work, and a process for developing terms of reference for that partnership's feasibility," Hausmann said a statement.
"All of my involvement in that whole process, including before I joined the board, was known by, and was sanctioned by, the chairman. Why it was later used against me can only be the subject for speculation about the motives of others."
Hausmann is understood to have detailed his reservations about the administration of contracts in areas where other board members have commercial interests in submissions to the Director-General of Health's review.
Health Minister David Cunliffe sacked the board last month and appointed Sir John Anderson as Commissioner in their place citing internal board divisions as an "irrevocable breakdown".
