- rmacculloch
Although the PM spun the sacking of the Chair of Health NZ, Rob Campbell, as being due to his political comments on social media, from what I'm hearing, the true reason may be different. After he lost the job, Campbell wrote an article for Newsroom, expressing his views about what was wrong with the health system (see below). It included these lines:
"There remains extensive waste, both pre-existing within each part and resulting from duplication (multiplication) across the system. The plan for eliminating this has to be put into action now along with the disestablishment of many hundreds of overhead roles".
"One fault in the Pae Ora structure is that the property/physical infrastructure functions should have been more clearly separated out into a body providing & maintaining infrastructure to the operating body & required to meet its clinical & other service demands .. It is an area in which private or social finance and/or delivery could have a useful role. This separation .. should be addressed promptly by the Government".
"I would like to see much more partnership with social & private agencies, with personnel switching between roles".
Seems to me Rob Campbell wanted to fire a whole bunch of administrators, as well as open up the system to more private involvement, in a way that retained equity but greatly expanded choice to make things work more efficiently.
My impression, given statements from Labour Party Ministers, including the previous Health Minister Andrew Little, is that Labour do not want to fire administrators, nor open things up to greater private supply of services. Seems Campbell was fired out of a basic disagreement arising from the nature of his proposed reforms, not a couple of comments he flicked off on his Linkedin account about the Nats.
Sources: