[comment caption=Do you think health boards should accept funding from fast food chains?]By associating itself with companies like Speight's, the Otago District Health Board was working against the healthy outcomes its staff were trying to achieve, a public health advocate says.
The board is offering a free beer to expatriate health professionals at the Speight's Southerner bar in London as part of its advertising campaign to entice them home.
It is also in discussion with McDonald's charitable foundation, Ronald McDonald Charities, which wants to fund a family room in Dunedin Hospital.
Public Health Association Otago and Southland chairman Richard Egan said thousands of national health dollars were being spent to address New Zealand's problematic drinking culture and he questioned the board associating itself with Speight's.
"Health professionals all around the world are very aware of alcohol-related harm.
''I think people thinking about coming back to New Zealand might look at this and think `This is a strange campaign to be doing'.
"There are hundreds of organisations that use alcohol-related sponsorship, but health needs to try and take some higher moral ground."
In response to the approach from Ronald McDonald Charities, a senior board manager prepared a discussion paper questioning if hospitals should be associating themselves with industries which were potentially harming people's health.
Chief executive Brian Rousseau said a recommendation in the report to adopt a blanket policy to not accept funding from industries, such as the fast food industry, was rejected as each case should be treated on its own merit.
Offering one free beer was not promoting irresponsible drinking, he said.
"It depends if you want to take an extreme view. We want to take a balanced view. There is nothing wrong with having a beer, but don't have a dozen in one sitting.
"Clearly tobacco would be out, but where does alcohol and fast food fit in? It doesn't mean all fast food is unhealthy."
