Middlemore Hospital: What really went down between health minister and Counties Manukau DHB?

Revelations of run-down buildings, asbestos and sewage running down the walls have plagued Middlemore Hospital for months. In the fallout two board members on the Counties Manukau District Health Board have lost their jobs. One of them says he's had enough and for the first time tells his side of the story.

Two Counties Manukau District Health Board members have been pushed out by the health minister in the wake of the Middlemore Hospital building saga, but questions remain over what really happened.

The DHB has been under fire after news that several buildings at Middlemore Hospital were dealing with extreme mould, asbestos and raw sewage issues.

Mark Darrow is a professional director, chartered accountant and Justice of the Peace who sits on numerous boards, including the New Zealand Transport Agency, and who lived in the Counties Manukau area for nearly 30 years.

He leaves the board with a "heavy heart" and says he has had absolutely no explanation for why he's been removed.

CHRIS MCKEEN/STUFF

Middlemore Hospital has been plagued by revelations of building problems.

The story begins in December 2016 when four ministerial appointments were made under the then-National government. They were Darrow, Rabin Rabindran, Lester Levy and George Ngatai.

Levy has already left, Ngatai is staying on, but for Rabindran and Darrow their time on the board has ended without warning - simply a letter from Health Minister David Clark saying they're being removed.

Earlier this month Rabindran, who is the acting chair, and Darrow received a letter from Clark saying their position on the board was being reconsidered and they had until April 12 to make a case for why they should keep their jobs.

Rabindran, fed up with how things had been handled, chose to respond by saying he didn't want to continue on the board regardless of Clark's final decision.

Darrow, however, responded several times through until late on April 11 with documents outlining how the Board had dealt with various issues over the last year.

But by 7.39am on April 13 Darrow had a response from Clark - his time was up and his last day on the board would be May 2.

Supplied

Mark Darrow has been removed from the Counties Manukau District Health Board and says Health Minister David Clark has never met, spoken or written to him until he received a letter saying his time on the board was up.

Twelve days later however, and Clark is still telling media that the process around Rabindran and Darrow's future is still underway despite them already having their termination letters.

Much of that delay is around the wording Clark's office proposed to use in a press release that implied they were being removed because of the building problems, Darrow claimed.

On Tuesday a spokesperson for Clark's office said both Rabindran and Darrow remain in their positions and "an announcement will be made in due course". 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the process is still underway and she wouldn't be commenting on it while it was ongoing.

DARROW AND CLARK HAVE NEVER MET

Darrow said he has given Clark three chances to meet with him but had been declined or not given the courtesy of an answer on every occasion.

To this day he's never met Clark, never spoken to him or received any correspondence from him other than a final notice letter and then his removal letter, he said.

"He never rang me, never raised any issues and he won't meet with me. In the letters he's never even said what, if any, his concerns are - no one, not him, his office or anyone in the Ministry of Health, has ever outlined to me any issue at all with my or the Board's performance."

The DHB has been dealing with a number of issues stemming back to the start of last year, not long after the four ministerial appointments were made onto the board.

Darrow claims they became quickly aware of a number of issues relating to the financial management of the DHB - but he wouldn't go into details.

"We kept pulling threads and they were getting bigger and uglier to a point where our internal auditors were engaged on a special project basis and undertook detailed work.

"Three new directors in particular started asking some questions of management and it's probably no coincidence that some executives left pretty soon after the new board came on the scene," he said.

The ministry and Audit New Zealand were alerted and the ministry agreed to take over the process using an external company, Darrow claimed.

"The report is as of three or four weeks ago sitting on the Ministry and presumably the Minister's desk," Darrow said.

THE PROBLEMS GET BIGGER

While dealing with that, the board also turned its attention to the state of the Scott Building at Middlemore Hospital which had been at a loose end for several years.

Suggestions sewage was running down the walls are "a complete beat up" and while there was a leak, it was in 2013/14 and was fixed, Darrow said.

There is one type of PVC pipe in one building that remains a risk but the "contract for repair has been signed and work is imminent".

A settlement was negotiated and a contract was sorted for the Scott Building and Rabindran, who is a specialist lawyer in this area, did the grunt work behind getting that difficult issue sorted.

"As we were doing that other building issues came up, and it's true that building issues were generally known about and talked about and reported on, but there was no complete list of all issues."

In May last year the audit and finance committee, which Darrow chairs, asked Middlemore management for a full stocktake of "every problem in every building" with a report due back in August.

"They reported in August that the job was bigger than they thought and there were more problems than they thought."

A report arrived with the committee in October and went straight to the main board meeting on October 25.

"Within a few weeks we had a full facilities remediation plan together and within two weeks all that data was with both the Capital Investment Committee and the Ministry," Darrow said.

"Any suggestion that this board didn't do its job or alert the appropriate authorities is just absolute rubbish. The real question is why the ministry or the Capital Investment Committee did not advise the Minister on the issues that were raised with them in detail on multiple occasions. The briefings and meeting minutes from the DHB are all on file."

Darrow says the remedial stocktake that was done at Middlemore was probably the most comprehensive of any DHB in the country and Clark was now removing the very people responsible for putting a spotlight on the problems.

"When you take on these public service appointments you understand you are appointed on a political whim and that you leave on a political whim. You know the rules of the game before you start.

"But I am walking away with a pretty heavy heart. Counties Manukau management and staff deserve better support, they are just the most incredible group of people who do amazing work under very tough circumstances, and I have been honoured to work alongside them" he said.

Clark's spokesperson said the minister wouldn't comment on his "interactions with Mr Darrow, other than to say he is confident he has followed an appropriate process throughout".

DIFFERING ACCOUNTS OF HOSPITAL VISIT

Earlier this month Stuff revealed the DHB acting chief executive Gloria Johnson was at odds with Clark over what he was told about the state of Middlemore Hospital's problems when he visited on March 13.

She says Clark was specifically told there were "similar problems in multiple buildings", which Clark denies. He says there was "no mention of any other urgent works" other than the Scott Building.

Clark and his adviser were both given dossiers of information that day that included the full remediation plan and costings but Clark says only the Scott Building was drawn to his attention.

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF

Health Minister David Clark wrote to two Counties Manukau District Health Board members on April 13 saying they were being removed but has still not announced it publicly.

Darrow wasn't there the day of the visit but says he's received emails and has spoken to other people who were there who say Johnson's account of what happened was "accurate and consistent".

He says Clark's office contacted DHB asking for another copy of the information that was provided at that visit on the same day Stuff asked questions about it.

"I can't confirm what was said but I can confirm what he was given and the fact he had to ask for another copy suggests he and his advisor both didn't read it and lost the originals," Darrow said.

In response, a spokesperson for Clark said a copy of the information was asked for that day because the press secretary responding to Stuff's questions didn't have one "immediately available".

While he accepts that some appointments are political, Darrow says he's just disappointed he won't get to be part of the team that starts fixing the issues now that they've been brought to the surface.