KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark is backing Health Minister David Cunliffe's decision to sack the Hawke's Bay District Health Board, saying the Government has a responsibility to ensure the best possible services are delivered.
Mr Cunliffe sacked the board last week and appointed a commissioner, Sir John Anderson, in its place.
He cited internal board divisions, an irrevocable breakdown in relations with hospital management and a $7.7 million budget blowout.
All five of the region's local authorities have voted to launch a legal challenge for a judicial review of the decision.
Helen Clark acknowledged today there was local opposition to Mr Cunliffe's action.
"There are certainly opinion leaders there who have very clear views," she said on NewstalkZB.
"But my view is that I don't really care what the rights and wrongs of what was going on within the board are - I don't believe that you can run a decent health service for the people of Hawke's Bay while that is going on."
Helen Clark said that apart from the problems experienced by the board, the health service in Hawke's Bay had not been particularly good.
"Now that cannot go on, and while it's Mr Cunliffe's statutory decision under the law, to make himself, I support his decision."
At the centre of the controversy is a conflict of interest case being investigated by an independent panel on the orders of the Director-General of Health, Stephen McKernan.
He said yesterday it would take another two weeks to complete a report on allegations surrounding a failed $50 million contract bid by Healthcare New Zealand, a private company, for community services funded by the board.
A former board member, Peter Hausmann, is a director of Healthcare New Zealand.
Media have been blocked from publishing a leaked draft of the report by an interim injunction sought by the Director-General of Health and Healthcare New Zealand.
Helen Clark said she thought the best thing would be for all the information to come out and not just "selective leaking of various drafts this and that by previous board members".
"I think there's a full story to be told, and in the fullness of time it will be told," she said.
- NZPA
