The dramas at Whanganui District Health Board took another turn yesterday with Philippa Baker-Hogan resigning from a joint Whanganui-MidCentral committee.
Mrs Baker-Hogan told board chair Kate Joblin that she was taking the step because she did not believe the centralAlliance committee had been properly updated or alerted to the fact the maternity services in the region were in crisis.
Mrs Joblin, deputy-chairman Phil Sunderland and Allan Anderson are the other WDHB representatives on the committee. Mr Sunderland is also chairman of the MidCentral DHB.
Mrs Baker-Hogan said there were two key reasons for her resignation.
"I knew no detail of the proposed [regional] women's service until I came to the confidential workshop prior to Christmas [December 12, 2011].
"I believe I have failed the WDHB and community in this role.
"I have not been given, but perhaps not asked the right questions of both boards' management, to delve into critical detail of what the proposed service implications are for the Wanganui community," she said.
She said in her defence the centralAlliance committee and the board were told the regional women's health service plan was working through a number of issues with MidCentral.
She and other committee and board members were briefed that that "plan was being worked up"and would be before the December workshop.
"Regardless, I cannot continue to work on a committee that is apparently meant to 'give advice' on proposals of which it has no detail," Mrs Baker-Hogan said.
She said she did not believe the board, and particularly the centralAlliance committee, had been updated or alerted "to what we are now told is a service in crisis".
Mrs Baker-Hogan said she believed the board and the community needed to focus on the future of women's health services at Wanganui Hospital.
"The information needs to be out there and I also think we need more time to consider it," Mrs Baker-Hogan said.