The Government will appoint Sir John Anderson as the new chairman of the crisis-stricken Capital and Coast District Health Board, it was reported yesterday.
Sir John is chairman of TVNZ, and TV One News said he would replace Judith Aitken who was being dumped partly because of her
role in the deteriorating relationship between the board and hospital managers.
A Cabinet committee met yesterday to consider the options the Government has to deal with the board.
A spokesman for Health Minister David Cunliffe said he could not confirm the One News report.
"The matter is still before a Cabinet committee," the spokesman said last night.
"There may not even be an announcement tomorrow."
The Government's decision had been expected yesterday or today.
Mr Cunliffe took a list of options to Monday's Cabinet meeting, and they were referred to the high-level policy committee.
He said last week the options included sacking the board and replacing it with a commissioner, putting it under strict monitoring, or helping it "stabilise" its situation.
The DHB, which runs Wellington Hospital, has been severely criticised for its ballooning budget deficit, the way it treats new mothers and a string of events over the past two years involving the death of some patients.
A new board is about to take over from the old one.
The Government appoints four members to it, and One News reported that one of them would be a Crown monitor who would report directly to Mr Cunliffe.
Ms Aitken was re-elected to the board in the recent local body elections, and will remain a member of it.
National's health spokesman, Tony Ryall, said Sir John would have a difficult time dealing with the board's problems.
He did not think that appointing a Crown monitor would do much good, because the board had been under a monitoring regime since May and there had been no improvement.
A big cash injection is a likely outcome of the Cabinet committee's consideration of the options.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday the board's deficit was ahead of forecast.
Sir John was appointed chairman of TVNZ in December 2005.
- NZPA
