Specialist blasts health board chairman

By CATHERINE MASTERS

A senior doctor at Auckland Hospital has lashed out at controversial board chairman Wayne Brown, accusing him of being ignorant and holding clinical staff in "utter contempt".

Intensive care specialist Les Galler said Mr Brown had appeared contemptuous and dismissive of clinical staff in the hospital, had insulted the junior resident medical officers directly and had made a personal insult against another senior doctor.

Mr Brown should apologise and resign - or just resign, he says.

Mr Galler's comments come as tension between doctors and Mr Brown continues to grow and follow a call by the Association of Medical Specialists - the senior doctors' union - last week for Health Minister Annette King to sack him.

They also follow an administrative blunder forcing Mr Brown to step down as chairman of Gisborne health body Tairawhiti District Health Board because he could not be on two boards at once.

Mr Brown, brought on to the Auckland board to cut its deficit, last night denied he was ignorant or insulting.

"It was not my intention to offend them [the doctors]. I apologise if it was taken as offensive ... it wasn't intended that way.

"We need to work together for benefit of everybody, for the benefit of the organisation - I don't want a scrap."

Mr Galler, who made his comments to the Herald yesterday, is supported by other senior doctors, who say morale is so low medical and nursing staff may begin to look for other jobs, possibly in Australia, rather than continue with Mr Brown at the helm.

They object especially to his abrasive style and comments made by him on TV One's Sunday programme last weekend.

Mr Galler said staff were already struggling with cutbacks and threats to jobs as the board tried to reduce an $86 million deficit by $25 million.

Mr Brown was hired for the sole purpose of trying to reduce the deficit and his overriding concern was the financial bottom line, Mr Galler said.

His "utter contempt" for the clinical staff and his comments on television reflected ignorance and a lack of concern about the delivery of hospital-based care.

Mr Galler said that on the Sunday show, Mr Brown had insulted Bruce Twaddle, the director of orthopaedic trauma at Auckland Hospital, even though the two had never met.

Mr Twaddle said: "If you're trying to get an organisation to save millions of dollars, ostracising every facet of that organisation is just totally counter-productive and he needs to be out of the job ... It's totally inappropriate that he's in the position."

If the situation got any worse, Mr Twaddle said, Australia was an option. "And other guys will just go out into private. They'll go and do hip replacements in private and earn three times what they do in public. And they'll go sadly."

Mr Brown said Mr Twaddle had "launched into" him first.

He also said: "We're in the middle of a big change and I'm there to do the best, clearly the best, for the public and the taxpayer."

James Ritchie, the northern region manager for the Nurses Organisation, said nurses also wanted Mr Brown to resign and felt he had treated staff with disdain: "Clearly the man is not acceptable for such an important public position."

Graeme Edmond, the board's chief executive, said people were entitled to their opinions.

The organisation was going through significant change and when this was the case sometimes parts of the workforce held different views.

"Wayne is a very direct person and he says things very, very bluntly and very directly and sometimes people find that difficult," Mr Edmond said.

"But he is very much focused, ensuring that we are an organisation that delivers first-class care within the resources to people that utilise those services."

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