A blogging DHB member

David Choat, an elected member of Capital Coast DHB, blogged on his initial board meeting

While I do not share David’s politics, I found his blog post a very useful way to get a concise summary of issues being considered at board level. David shows his leanings of course by talking about “I’ll be keen to get some perspectives from unions and others with an view about this proposal prior to that.” I hope David includes patients amongst his “others”.

He blogs again last week that he has been asked to not blog:

A few days after posting it, I received an email from the Chair of my Board, saying it had caused distress, and was in breach of Capital & Coast’s media policy, which says that the Chair is the media spokesperson and “Board members will consult the Chair and seek approval prior to making public comment on any policy issue” (my emphasis). The media policy will now be on the agenda for discussion at February’s board meeting (which I welcome).

Personally I don’t think we should have elected DHB members, as they actually lead to reduced accountabilty for the Minister and Government. But given we do have elected DHB members, it is silly to try and have a policy that forbids them from speaking out on any policy issue without approval.

If a board is all appointed, then that is a common convention. But trying to impose it on a DHB is like a Mayor telling Councillors they can’t speak publicly on any policy issue.

Capital Coast Health would be better focused on how to fix that they are the DHB which seems less able to live within its means, and less time on stopping DHB members from blogging.