Editorial: DHB stuck between a rock and hard place

OPINION: MidCentral District Health Board's management team should be applauded for its lateral thinking, although it is debatable as to how far it will get them.

There were a few noises last year that the board was looking at some creative ways of chipping away at its forecast $9 million debt for the year.

One of the more interesting was floating the idea that the board should team up with a business (or businesses) and hammer out a sponsorship deal to help ease the financial woes.

As the end of the financial year looms, the idea got another airing at a board meeting this week.

The board has been under a lot of criticism for the cuts it has already made this year, but it is between a rock and a hard place, with a knife-wielding Minister of Health breathing down its neck. (Yesterday's announcement that 130 Ministry of Health jobs are to be axed is extra evidence of that, if it is needed.)

As left-field as the health board's sponsorship idea is, there are still a number of fish hooks. First, it's not only the board that is battling financial problems at the moment – so are a number of the corporates it would be targeting as potential suitors.

Add to that the restrictive criteria that the board has, rightly, put on any possible deals and the options of who can help out start to dwindle.

Outlining its draft sponsorship policy, the board said potential sponsors had to have goals "consistent" with a large health service and they would not undermine the board's independence on commercial decisions.

That surely rules out fast-food and beverage companies, some of the more generous corporate sponsors, because surely some people may have been put in hospital as a result of their products.

If such an elusive sponsor is found, the company and the board will come under huge scrutiny as to the nature of any arrangement.

The idea of sponsorship, while with merit, is one that will certainly have trouble getting off the ground.

One more thing: It's not often that I agree with an MP, but in Charles Chauvel's case, I do. The Labour MP supposedly said out loud that he wished a group of rowdy kids on a flight would "shut up".

He didn't direct the message to the children or parents, but merely voiced his frustration – something many of us could relate to.

Flying can be a testing time. Some people are nervous fliers, and a noisy or over-active child can aggravate those feelings.

The fact that his few choice words were taken to the media by the disgruntled parent, and ACT New Zealand member, should come as no surprise.

Mr Chauvel stood his ground when confronted, and good on him. I just hope the party hierarchy won't bow to PC nonsense and make him apologise for something he shouldn't be sorry for.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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