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Conflicts of interest and other matters at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board

Report for the Director-General of Health


Date of publication: 17 March 2008

Summary

The following is parts 1.1 to 1.7 of the report that summarises the work of the review panel:

"This report is a review of conflicts of interest and other matters at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (HBDHB). Shortly before this report was finalised, the Minister of Health (the Minister) appointed a Commissioner, who replaced the board of the HBDHB (the Board). This report relates to events that occurred prior to this appointment.

"If the Minister had not appointed a Commissioner, we would have recommended that the Minister appoint a Crown monitor to the Board to report on the Board’s progress in implementing the recommendations in this report within a specified timeframe, with strictly understood outcomes, and to address other matters that arise. It is essential that there is external input to resolve these issues at the HBDHB.

"The culture at the HBDHB, and the relationships and delineation between board (governance) and management (operational), are important for conflicts of interest to be handled appropriately. Both the Board and management have been, for some time, concerned about the culture and their relationship at HBDHB. The Review Panel (the Panel) shares that concern.

"Our review has covered the following issues:
  1. the handling, by Board member Peter Hausmann and other members of the Board, of the HBDHB’s community services initiative (Community Services Initiative);
  2. the handling, by Board member Peter Hausmann, of the Wellcare Education Ltd (Wellcare) initiative;
  3. the Board’s handling of conflicts of interest generally;
  4. Board governance issues; and
  5. recommendations.
"The Panel has found this review complex and challenging, involving a number of interested parties, some difficult issues of law, and differences of view as to the facts.

"In addition to the legal dimension, ethical duties as to conflict of interest apply. A key feature of those ethical duties for District Health Board (DHB) board members is the public perception element, given that they are publicly owned bodies:

The management of conflicts of interest also involves appearances – what an outside observer might reasonably perceive. Most often, what needs to be managed (and be seen to be managed) is the risk of adverse public perception that could arise from overlapping interests1.


"In this review, we also had regard to "good practice", which is what DHB boards and their members should do to meet appropriate standards."

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Publication availability

The full report is available in PDF format below:


Conflicts of interest and other matters at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (PDF, 1 MB)


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Related information

Comments from the panel lead Ian Wilson at the release of the report (17 Mar) (Word, 59 KB)
Report into Conflicts of Interest at Hawkes Bay DHB - media release and questions and answers (17 Mar)
Ministry of Health announces change to Hawke’s Bay review team (19 Jul)
Ministry of Health announces review team - including terms of reference and review team biographies (10 Jul)

1. Auditor General, Managing conflicts of interest: Guidance for public entities (June 2007), page 6.
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