After months of wrangling about where Wairarapa Hospital’s litigation settlement from Masterton District Council has gone, Health NZ has revealed none of the money was ring-fenced for the hospital.
Now local MPs are blaming each other’s party policies for the outcome. Last year, it was revealed the district council and Health NZ settled out of court following a legal dispute over alleged defects in the construction and consenting process for Wairarapa Hospital.
Health NZ last week responded to a request by the Ombudsman for further information on the settlement.
“Health NZ has not ring-fenced a percentage of the settlement funds for Wairarapa Hospital,” it said in a statement.
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, who was Wairarapa MP at the time of the litigation, slammed Health NZ’s decision, but National’s Mike Butterick, current Wairarapa MP, was quick to clap back.
“After months of ducking and diving, it has taken the Ombudsman to force Health NZ and the Government to provide an answer,” McAnulty said.
“They have finally admitted what we have all known – the Government has taken the money from the settlement to fill the hole in its health budget.
“The Government took Masterton council to court because our hospital is not fit for purpose. They claimed the hospital was so bad that it needed to be fully replaced. It reached a settlement solely for the purpose of fixing the hospital, then decided to use that money for other purposes.
“And then the Health Minister has the gall to turn to us and say the hospital is fine, nothing to see here. It is a genuine scandal,” he said.
McAnulty said locals had lost out twice.
“Masterton Council’s insurers have had to fork out, no doubt increasing the premiums which local ratepayers will have to stump up for.
“Secondly, our hospital is still stuffed, because the Health Minister has flogged the money meant to fix it.”
He said the council were not to blame, and called on Butterick to ask the Health Minister for an explanation and demand the money is spent to fix the hospital.
“We all have the right to be outraged at this,” he said.
However, Butterick blamed the previous government.
“Kieran McAnulty and Labour implemented a botched merger of our health system, which disestablished the Wairarapa District Health Board, meaning decisions around capital funding are made by Health NZ rather than locally in the Wairarapa,” he said.
He said McAnulty should explain why he voted for the changes which removed local decision-making from the community.
“I am focused on ensuring Masterton Hospital gets the funding it needs and have been advocating strongly for investment in our hospital.
“I am pleased to see the Minister of Health has included major upgrades of the hospital in the health infrastructure plan, which will fix the infrastructure issues facing our hospital and grow the hospital to deliver more health services for our community.
“I will continue to fight for health services to be delivered locally in the Wairarapa, unlike Kieran McAnulty and Labour who were prepared to sell out our region in favour of a Wellington mega-merger.”
The most recent correspondence from Health NZ follows the outcome of a one-month hearing at Wellington High Court in 2023 between Wairarapa District Health Board (now Health NZ), and the Masterton District Council about alleged defects in the construction and consenting process for Wairarapa Hospital.
The claim was for $90 million in damages, plus interest and costs, to remedy the defective hospital.
After the hearing, the parties reached a confidential settlement.
Requests for the settlement details under the Official Information Act were denied.
This included a request for the percentage of the settlement money that was ring-fenced for Wairarapa.
Following referral of the matter to the Ombudsman’s office, a letter from John Allen, the Chief Ombudsman, said Health NZ was entitled to refuse the request for the settlement amount on the basis that confidentiality applied.
However, Health NZ was not entitled to refuse a request for the percentage of the settlement ring-fenced for Wairarapa Hospital, Allen said.
“I have recommended that Health NZ release the information regarding ‘of the amount received in the Wairarapa Hospital settlement, what percentage is ring-fenced for Wairarapa Hospital’ to you.”
The recommendation prompted last week’s reply.
By Sue Teodoro of Local Democracy Reporting
– Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
