PR firm looks into Starship row

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

Auckland health chiefs have asked a public relations firm to design a review of how the Starship naming saga was handled.

Raynish & Partners helped the Auckland District Health Board and its chairman, Wayne Brown, with press releases during the row.

The board last year renamed the inpatient services of Starship, National Women's and Green Lane Hospitals as the Children's, Women's and Cardiac Services of the new Auckland City Hospital, scheduled to open this October.

But after a public furore and a Government warning to consult widely over Starship, board members this month backed down.

Answering Herald questions about a possible audit, senior Raynish consultant Anne Hogan said her firm had been asked about reviewing the handling of the Starship issue.

"The board and the CEO actually invited Raynish to outline how a communications audit would work."

Raynish put a proposal to the board and it was being considered, she said. It was confined to the Starship issue, rather than being a wide-ranging review of the board's three-member communications unit.

"It was around the whole Starship issue and just looking at how it happened and what procedures were followed and what material was prepared and all that kind of thing."

Asked if it was to cover communications issues and public consultation, Ms Hogan said: "Yes, the public relations, communications aspects of it all."

Board chief executive Graeme Edmond said it was not considering having an audit done of the communications unit. The board had been investigating how Raynish could provide further help.

He said the board or the chairman had commissioned Raynish three or four times at a cost of just over $50,000. Other firms had been used in the past.

Raynish was called in at times of high pressure that overwhelmed the board's small communications unit, such as publicity over the Green Lane heart collection and the radiographers' strikes last year.

Asked about the practice in light of Mr Brown last year demanding cuts in the use of external consultants by the deficit-plagued organisation, Mr Edmond said it had been accepted Raynish would still be needed for some specialised projects.

Mr Brown is overseas and could not be contacted.

Last November Raynish employed his son Sean Brown after he graduated from a public relations course. Ms Hogan said this presented no conflict of interest.

"He works on consumer accounts so he has nothing to do with the ADHB account."