KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark has assured Wellingtonians that Capital and Coast District Health Board (DHB) problems will be fixed.
Cabinet is today to consider options for dealing with problems at the DHB.
The DHB, which runs Wellington Hospital, has been severely criticised for its ballooning budget deficit, the way it treats new mothers and a string of "sentinel events" over the past two years which led to the death of some patients.
Health Minister David Cunliffe said last week he would take options to today's Cabinet meeting, then announce what he was going to do about the DHB.
Options included sacking the board and appointing a commissioner, putting the DHB under intensive monitoring and helping it "stabilise" itself, possibly with extra funds.
Miss Clark was asked about the issue today on Breakfast TV.
She said she did not want to go into the factors that had caused the board to get into trouble but there was no question it did have to be "cleaned up".
"I think there's a whole lot of issues here. There seems to have been dysfunction between the management and the board, there's been probably all the stress and strain of a major building programme... What we know is there is an issue and it has to be fixed.
"Obviously things have gone wrong at Capital and Coast Health and that causes tragedy. But many, many, many things have gone right for tens of thousands of people as well."
Her message to Wellington people was "there's a problem and it will be fixed".
- NZPA reported on Friday that briefing papers sent to Mr Cunliffe when he became health minister in October showed the DHB had been under a monitoring watch since May.
National's health spokesman, Tony Ryall, said that meant the Government had known about the crisis for six months.
"The minister has had Capital Coast under the most intensive monitoring regime he has for half the year," Mr Ryall said.
If the Government appointment of another board monitor that would not convince Wellingtonians.
Mr Ryall said he understood the situation was so bad that a quarter of all the DHB's nurses resigned in the past year, compared with a 14 per cent turnover three years ago.
"Some wards have 20 per cent nursing vacancies, on top of staff shortages in child oncology and midwifery," he said.
"When a quarter of the nurses flee from a hospital in one year, you'd think someone would realise the place is in trouble."
- NZPA
