District Health Board member Jacoby Poulain has been reprimanded by the board chairman for criticising the DHB.
District Health Board member Jacoby Poulain has been reprimanded by the board chairman for criticising the DHB.
A prominent Napier QC has questioned whether Hawke's Bay District Health Board staff acted "with the wisdom you would have hoped" when Oranga Tamariki and police tried to uplift a newborn baby from its young mother.
Russell Fairbrother, QC, a former MP, also says board member Jacoby Poulain, who subsequentlyclaimed the DHB had "failed significantly in its duty of care to provide safe and adequate care to mother and child in this situation", should be "congratulated for speaking out".
Russell Fairbrother, QC, has congratulated outspoken Hawke's Bay District Health Board member for speaking out on the attempted uplift of a baby. Photo / File.
However, HBDHB chief executive Kevin Snee says Fairbrother "does not have a full understanding of what has occurred or of the obligations of Board members in these circumstances.
"The DHB is happy to meet with him to discuss this further."
The May 7 incident brought Oranga Tamariki's justifications for taking newborn babies from their mothers into the national spotlight.
Police spent that night, and the early hours of the next morning at Hawke's Bay Hospital because of a standoff between Maori midwives, lawyers, whanau and Oranga Tamariki over the baby.
Negotiations ended with the mother and baby staying together, with conditions.
Poulain's criticism has not gone down well with DHB chairman Kevin Atkinson, who has said she "breached the board code of conduct by criticising the DHB and the staff that work".
Fairbrother believes Atkinson should not have "put his nose in it" and said Poulain's criticism extended to the exclusion from the hospital of the young mother's chosen midwives.
The former MP for Napier, who has never met Poulain, said she didn't mention a staff member, she spoke out against the actions of the DHB.
"She thought the actions were wrong, and I think they certainly were wrong."
"No one is suggesting the Board had collectively decided in advance on the handling of this event.
"Thus there is no collective activity of the Board, so there can be no breach of the Governance Manual or the Crown Entities Act."
He said the Minister of Health had no power to intervene against Poulain.
Instead, he said, "just two questions should trouble the Board".
"First, how does it reconcile this action of staff with its Treaty Obligations? Secondly, how does it justify a breach by staff of the NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990 which guarantees freedom from cruel treatment and the rights of minorities?"
Atkinson, speaking to Hawke's Bay Today from overseas earlier this week, said his issue was "not her (Poulain's) concern around the way in which babies are uplifted," but her public criticism of the board.
Atkinson said he had found it "difficult to accept" the way in which Oranga Tamariki obtained a court order to uplift the baby "without the mother having any representation".
"No matter how bad the mother and father and whatever might be, I still think the court should hear their perspective and have some representation, so on that point, I have the same views that Jacoby has," he said.
Atkinson also said he does not believe a baby should be uplifted from hospital premises".
"I think the mother and baby need to go to a safe environment where the whanau, the mother and Oranga Tamariki can work this through.
But despite Atkinson's concerns, he said Jacoby must abide by the board's code of conduct.
However, in response to Fairbrother's comments, Atkinson said it is an "operational matter" and directed all questions to Snee.
HBDHB chief executive Kevin Snee says Fairbrother "does not have a full understanding of what has occurred or of the obligations of Board members in these circumstances.
Snee said he provided a response to the baby uplift in its May Board report.
"The DHB played a pivotal role in this event reaching a resolution everyone was happy with. This matter is now also before the family courts.
"We believe Mr Fairbrother does not have a full understanding of what has occurred or of the obligations of Board members in these circumstances.
"The DHB is happy to meet with him to discuss this further."
Poulain said she "appreciated and acknowledged Fairbrother's comments.
"I feel that the ability of an elected representative to be able to speak freely is a crucial matter for the functioning of a healthy democracy."
She agreed with Fairbrother's comments, saying she has "never criticised the board".
"My comments have been specific about the DHB, and the roles of the DHB in regards to this. I've never criticised management or staff."
She says she asked for an emergency meeting days into the affair. And has written to Atkinson seeking to meet with the board.
"My sole job is to oversee the functioning of the DHB."
Poulain said she hoped that "we as a board are able to have a healthy, fair and balanced discussion together about matters, and then hopefully work on ways we can fix the issues going forward, for everybody".
