By June 2020 it had grown to about $180m. Following the resignation of seven senior executive team members in July and August last year, including former chief executive David Meates, Levy spoke publicly about the CDHB management’s failures regarding its budget.
John Kirk-Anderson/Stuff
Dr Lester Levy, centre, has been re-appointed as crown monitor by the Minister of Health Andrew Little. He was first appointed by former Minister David Clark in 2019. “The reality is the finances are in terrible shape,” he told
Stuff at the time. “There has been probably less control over spending than there should have been, and if only someone had got onto this earlier it would be a smaller problem to solve than it is now.”
RNZ
The Detail talks to former Stuff and Press reporter Oliver Lewis about the reasons behind the executive management resignations in Canterbury and why the rest of New Zealand should care. (Video first published August 17, 2020)
A Crown Monitor will keep watching the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) for a second term. The contract of current Crown Monitor Dr Lester Levy is due to end in February, but on Tuesday Health Minister Andrew Little said he would keep him on or appoint someone else to the role. “Late last year I met separately with the clinical and executive leadership, as well as the front line staff at the CDHB. My judgement is the DHB will continue to benefit from the support of a Crown Monitor past February,” he said.
A CDHB spokesman said the questions would have to be treated as an OIA request – which takes up to 20 working days to process. He later said he would try to send a written response, but nothing was sent before deadline.
Joseph Johnson/Stuff
A large group of CDHB staff protest outside the board s corporate office building in Oxford Tce earlier this year. The CDHB has been at loggerheads with the Ministry of Health over the reasons for its $180m deficit – the biggest of all DHBs – and how to reduce it without cutting health services. Both parties tried to prove they were right through external reviews, but never reached an agreement.