Dear Tony Ryall,
I write as a consultant clinical psychologist with nearly 30 years' experience of working in the health sector in Dunedin.
For 14 years, I worked in the public sector, and for the last 16 years I have been working privately in a primary mental health role.
I am a fellow of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists.
Over all of my time in clinical practice, I have known Richard Thomson as a colleague, as a university lecturer, and as a tireless campaigner for community-based mental health services.
He is also an astute businessman and of course, for the past few years, has been the chairperson of the Otago DHB.
In all of these roles, I would say that Richard is one of the most principled, trustworthy and sincere individuals that I have met.
He has a strong commitment to community service, and he has recently carried himself with great integrity in one of the most demanding of public service roles.
He is forthright, will call a spade a spade, and insists upon the highest standards of ethical conduct in those around him.
I have absolutely no doubt that it was essentially Richard's depth of character that eventually brought the shameful Swann-Harford fraud scandal into the light of day.
By targeting Richard as a scapegoat for the board's historical oversights and/or systems failures, you are doing yourself a huge disservice.
Not only will the region lose one of its most effective and respected leaders, but your own credibility, and that of your advisers and the ministry, will also be severely weakened in this part of the country.
It will inevitably be seen as a shallow, politically motivated decision, whether this was your intention or not.
In Dunedin and in the Otago-Southland region generally, Richard Thomson is widely respected and trusted as the man to carry our health services through difficult and stressful times.
By questioning his continuing role as board chair, you are targeting exactly the wrong guy.
He is widely seen as the person who eventually called the fraudsters to account, and he is now considered to be exactly the right person to take the board forward from here.
I offer you these independent comments in good faith, and to bring some balance to the obviously skewed advice that you have received so far.
If you have substantive concerns about Richard's governance abilities, then so be it.
But to question his personal credibility, or his handling of the recent scandal, defies all belief.
Chris Skellett, FNZCCP, is a Dunedin-based registered clinical psychologist.
