The question of whether the National Health Board led the Southern District Health Board to believe it would address concerns about elective surgery funding and then backed down, remains unanswered.
The national body, in an email response to questions related to issues raised by recently-departed DHB chief executive Brian Rousseau, issued a two-paragraph statement which does not address the suggestion it could have reneged on an understanding on the issue.
In the response to the Otago Daily Times questions, NHB deputy director Michael Hundleby said elective surgery was funded outside of population-based funding and great advances had been made in the past two years with the number of New Zealanders who had received access to elective procedures.
"The NHB is delighted with this progress and is happy with the current way in which electives are funded."
Documents released to the ODT under the Official Information Act from the DHB suggest Mr Rousseau considered the board had reached an understanding with the NHB last year on electives funding which would have allowed the DHB to add $8.1 million to annual revenue in its future budgets.
Mr Rousseau argued extra funding for elective surgery should be allocated according to how much boards were delivering per head of population, something he estimated would benefit Southern and 12 other boards, but the biggest losers would be Auckland's three boards, which would miss out on more than $32 million this financial year.
However, the amount of surgery boards have been required to do was based on the amount they were doing in 2006-07, a time when the then Otago board was delivering well above its population share, while some other boards were doing less than theirs.
A question about whether the NHB asked, in Mr Rousseau's absence in May-June this year, that the $8.1 million additional revenue included in future budgets be removed, as Mr Rousseau suggested, was not directly answered either.
Instead, Mr Hundleby's response made a general statement about regular NHB communication with DHBs and their management teams.
This often involved processes which were timetabled throughout the year, "such as around reporting and planning requirements".
In the situation where the DHB chief executive was absent, the DHB would appoint an acting chief executive who would keep the chief executive fully up to date with any issues of importance that occurred while they were away, he said.
District health boards, in the absence of their chief executives, would appoint an acting chief executive who would keep the chief executive "fully up to date with any issues of importance that occur while they are away".
