Prospective Southern District Health Board candidates were
thrown a few curly questions yesterday by the audience at the
only public meeting for Otago hopefuls.
Candidates' views were sought on alternative health,
euthanasia, organ donations and the board's relationship with
community providers, or the NGO sector.
The meeting, jointly hosted by the Public Health Association
and the Dunedin Council of Social Services, attracted about
30 people.
Appearing at the meeting at Dunedin Community House were
Sophia Byles, Paul Douglas, Pat Fox, Chris Fraser, Marianne
Hannagan, Chris Marlow, Graham Roper and Richard Thomson, who
are vying for four seats on the Otago constituency of the
district health board.
Apologies were received from Dr Malcolm Macpherson, Dr Branko
Sijnja and Mary Flannery.
In response to the euthanasia question, only Mr Marlow was
totally opposed, for religious reasons; other candidates
either supported it or said they would support it if it were
legalised and if the public wanted it.
Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans asked candidates for their views
on organ donations from the dead.
Mr Thomson suggested a law change was required to end the
right of families to override a person's stated wishes once
they had died.
Other candidates suggested the DHB could take a leadership
and education role on the issue.
The most intense part of the meeting occurred when a woman in
the audience asked if the new board would continue "feeding
pharmaceuticals" to people instead of promoting alternative
medicine.
The woman interrupted board members who were trying to answer
the question, and stormed out a few minutes later when Mr
Marlow declared himself opposed to euthanasia.
Members addressed the question by saying alternative
therapies needed to be certified and proved before being
offered in the mainstream health sector, with Mr Thomson
pointing out the board did not make clinical decisions.
Plunket Otago and Southland area manager Barb Long asked
candidates how they planned to improve communication with the
community or NGO sector, which is contracted to provide
services.
She asked how the board could increase openness in the way
contracts were awarded and prevent the board's own service
provider arm being favoured for work.
Mr Fraser, a former planning and funding general manager for
the DHB, said because of the way DHBs were set up, they were
biased in terms of favouring their own service providers, a
tension which could be managed.
Mr Thomson, a former chairman of the old Otago board and a
current DHB member, admitted the DHB sometimes got it wrong
when dealing with other organisations.
"We regularly do things badly", and that was noticed, rather
than the things done well, he said.
Mr Roper said too many issues were dealt with by the board in
secret rather than in open meetings - more openness would
improve matters.
Candidates opened the meeting with a seven-minute personal
statement each.
They spoke of their political affiliations - or lack of
affiliation - values and beliefs, childhood experiences, role
models and special areas of interest.
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