How To See and Be Seen : 1. sit on the floor 2. do not lie #SDHB

At Facebook:

The Dunedin Hospital eye department’s throughput is commendable despite the lack of chairs and wait space provided by the fat cat, high fee-earning Team of Commissioners led by lawyer Kathy Grant….

As a user of the department’s services, there’s been no impediment to my eye treatment and monitoring at any time. I have never had to sit on the floor, nor would I even contemplate doing so —silly Sheep!

The staff were exactly right to complain to their union.

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### ODT Online Wed, 5 Jul 2017
Elderly patients forced to sit on floor
By Eileen Goodwin
Older patients were forced to sit on the floor while waiting for an appointment in the crisis-hit eye department at Dunedin Hospital, prompting a complaint from staff to their union. Public Service Association organiser Julie Morton said the lack of adequate waiting space was a health and safety issue. “There are frequently not enough seats in the waiting room to accommodate those waiting, and they have to sit on the floor,” Mrs Morton wrote to the Southern District Health Board last month. Some of the patients who had to sit on the floor were older people.
Read more

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D’oh, Ms Kathy Grant doesn’t believe in the value of Democracy in the Southern Region. Does the Southern community want the non-egalitarian, fryable Ms Grant to serve out her term to 2019.

### ODT Online Wed, 5 Jul 2017
Need for elected health board role downplayed
By Eileen Goodwin
The “truly unique” arrangements at Southern District Health Board will not adversely affect the Dunedin Hospital rebuild, commissioner Kathy Grant says. The Government is planning a hospital redevelopment potentially worth more than $1billion, and there are no elected representatives to influence the project because the board was sacked. Mrs Grant said the SDHB’s relationship with the Ministry of Health was no different than if an elected board was in place. “I’m not sure what additional dimension the existence of a traditional board would necessarily bring to that relationship.” […] The Otago Daily Times has been told by a contact, who would not be named, that the Cabinet would consider three options outlined [for the proposed new hospital] in an indicative business case, the most expensive of which costs more than $1 billion. After that decision, the rebuild governance group and the ministry would look at where to build and whether land needed to be acquired.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: dailymail.co.uk – article: Why are my blinking eyes so sore and watery?

thoughts and faces #loosematerial

My father [never a follower of the FedUp Farmers, as he deemed them; always the campaigner for removal of farm subsidies, to enhance production and market competition] had ‘stock’ phrases with which to judge the faces of female adversaries, those with little brain or spine in politics, pretenders. One adept phrase that sticks in my mind is “like a horse eating thistles” —so I look on the following with my tinted lens, and laugh, rurally (ruefully). No one target.

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On 19 May @StuFleming tweeted: “Spend $200k, revenue projections of $2.4M to others, 10% margin yields say $240k net”
[minus ODT news photo of face]

As ratepayer not involved in tourism or hospo, I’m wondering what to spend my windfall from Trenz on. Travel? Balclutha or Hampden? https://t.co/kau4b3aDSB

— T. Optional (@TomBoyOptional) May 20, 2017

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Rather bleak. pic.twitter.com/dI41cnqk0u

— Chris (@opetheater) May 20, 2017

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[DUD ‘money hype’ typically depends on false multipliers, anechoic silences, and arrogant self-belief —this (yes) bleak statement applies across a broad range of proposed deals and associated marketing detritus in the city, especially to events, conferences, sport, hospitality and accommodation, and even the re-use (Not conservation) of truly rare and precious instances of historic heritage] Here’s to all the fricking horses out there, including hypocritical colleagues and friends with blinkers like demo balls prepared to squeeze the last dollar and pass us to Hell. Anyway, back to “the business”…. cargo cult tourism. The wider effects of tourism are like those of dairying. Too many eggs in one basket and everybody (I mean, everybody) ends up doing it badly —killing Our Place for generations. Greed, like endorphins, like a running addiction, binds them up. They think they’re bright, they think they’re enablers (read risk takers/investors centred on their own gains only), they think they’re entrepreneurs, better than others (but because I for one will tell you things you don’t want to hear, you’ll say “I’ll ring you tomorrow”, that silence again) but they’re just funneled, tunneled sheepybaas – doing it wrong. Like cows, deer, Chinese gooseberries (Kiwifruit!), wines, stadiums….. or ‘getting a room’ behind the poorly remembered, heavily made-up, Disney’d facade of our city and nationhood. The worst kind didn’t, or didn’t bother to, ‘grow up’ here. They get desperate, create mess, import other yes men. Ring you like nothing happened, their exploits —not to ask deeply madly who and how you really are.

### ODT Online Sat, 20 May 2017
Trenz prompts high aspirations
By David Loughrey
Next year’s Trenz conference in Dunedin is set to cost ratepayers $200,000, but the long-term pay-off should run well into the millions.
The Dunedin City Council will next week be given an idea of the costs to the city of hosting the conference from May 7 to 10, and also the estimated benefits. The city learned last week it would host the tourism industry event next year, bringing up to 1200 international travel and tourism buyers, media and New Zealand tourism operators to Dunedin. It will be the first time the event, run by Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA), has come to Dunedin and the first time it has been hosted outside Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch or Queenstown since it began in the 1960s. Trenz is an opportunity for New Zealand tourism operators to sell their product to buyers, effectively overseas travel agents who put together itineraries for overseas tourists. Attracting more than 350 buyers to experience the tourism products on offer here is considered a huge coup. On average, each buyer sends 4000 visitors a year to New Zealand, totalling 1.5 million. It comes as figures show New Zealand’s tourism market is expected to continue to grow strongly, topping $15 billion by 2023. Tourism contributes more than $690 million to Dunedin’s economy every year.
Read more

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South Islanders woke up to a snowy start this morning with the first Antarctic blast of winter https://t.co/AJsIxO5Pwe pic.twitter.com/0jBfYGEORq

— nzherald (@nzherald) May 19, 2017

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Meanwhile, although we (‘our stock’ NZ) and the UK farm gate look pretty much the same……

‘Herdwick Shepherd’ aka James Rebanks (@herdyshepherd1) farms Herdwick sheep in the English Lake District. Author of bestselling memoir, The Shepherd’s Life:

Still cold up on the fells pic.twitter.com/VsFBL9yJnX

— Herdwick Shepherd (@herdyshepherd1) May 19, 2017

Best thing this week… pic.twitter.com/CKD0DJtAxj

— Herdwick Shepherd (@herdyshepherd1) May 19, 2017

### ODT Online Saturday, 20 May 2017
OE to Britain set to get tougher
Prime Minister Bill English says the Conservative Party’s new plans to clamp down on immigration will sting New Zealanders wanting to live in the United Kingdom, including on the traditional OE, but there is little he can do until Brexit is completed. The British party’s election manifesto includes plans to drastically cut net migration from 273,000 to less than 100,000 by targeting students and those on working visas. It proposes cutting the number of skilled migrants to get visas, higher levies on employers who take on migrant workers and tripling the National Health Service immigration health surcharge from £200 to £600 ($NZ380 to $NZ1130) a year for those in the UK on visas of more than six months and 450 for international students. That surcharge increase will also affect those on the traditional OE, although there is no mention of scrapping the two-year youth mobility visa which allows young New Zealanders to get a two-year visa to work and travel in the United Kingdom. Mr English said the changes would affect those on their OE but they would have to grin and bear it until Brexit was completed. NZME.
Read more

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Super City mayor Phil Goff has a plan for getting money from tourists – it bears some similarity to that of the Mongrel Mob……

Amid talk of hotel taxes and tourist levies, Winston Aldworth says New Zealanders are missing a bigger opportunity https://t.co/oJNUiMesTL

— nzherald (@nzherald) May 19, 2017

### NZ Herald Thu, 18 May 2017
Winston Aldworth: Seeking the smart money
OPINION What do Phil Goff and the Mongrel Mob have in common? As hundreds of travel industry figures from all around the world gathered in Auckland for last week’s Trenz conference, one of the many topics up for discussion was the Auckland mayor’s enthusiasm for a hotel bed tax on visitors to the city. Meanwhile, up north at Ahipara on Ninety Mile Beach, three German tourists were approached by two local Mongrel Mob members who told them that they were on Maori land, and had to pay koha. They also told the tourists they’d be taking a few of their cigarettes. A tobacco tax, if you will. Perhaps their plan for putting heavy taxes on visitors was inspired by the Super City mayor. Goff’s bed tax is about as blunt an instrument as the Mob’s shakedown. “Look there’s a foreigner! Let’s get a couple of bucks off them.” The airport tax introduced by John Key a year ago is equally clumsy. It’s a travesty that these tariffs are the best we can come up with for making money out of tourism. Yes, other countries put dull levies on visitor arrivals, but that’s no reason to follow suit. We New Zealanders pride ourselves on being innovators, so let’s find innovative ways to get more money out of the tourism sector. Both Goff and Key were ministers in governments that did everything they could to remove tariffs from the dairy trade. Today, the best and brightest marketing wallahs of Goff’s inner circle are putting forward a plan no more sophisticated than one devised by two Mongrel Mob members standing on a Northland beach. I’m not against making money out of tourists — quite the opposite, in fact. I think it’s terrific that our country can be boosted by an industry that encourages us to care for our environment, celebrate the things that make our culture unique and spreads revenue quickly and efficiently to the regions. But how about instead of putting a dumb tax on the visitors, we upsell them? Take their money at the gate for sure, but give them something special in return.
Read more

Enough randomising. More rain and ice falls.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Democracy, a little strange looking here and there

ODT 12.5.17 (page 16)

Not sure the above is the “nature of democracy”.
Ownership more often than not has rights to what Democracy might be, for better or worse. Democracy is the dull moving target around traction of tolerance and accommodation, alternately characterised by recklessness, drilling, handholding, gutless audacity and full oppositional war. And finally, perhaps, it is Comedy of Errors (the big CE) – to do with pique, vanity, providence, chess-like cunning, ill temper and quarrelsome kicks, artful dodging, strange bed fellows, lousy cracks at definition, ruthless assaults and incursions, “Territory”, chiming disgust, stiff ultimatums, the surrender to power, corruption or fraud…..and all notions, wagons, bonfires that encircle ‘the final word’ and last stands, angry trumpet votes to Brexit, chaste lookalikes, injury, ill health….. Jesus weeps.

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### ODT Online Wed, 12 Apr 2017
Hospital rebuild: back off but don’t back down
By Hilary Calvert
OPINION If we asked Otago people what they most want from health services it would likely be health service delivery in the province at least as good as the rest of New Zealand. For example, whatever qualifies for an operation here should be the same that qualifies those up north. The Dunedin School of Medicine is vital to us as well. […] What if harassing of the Government in an imagined party political fashion just makes the Government determined to not give us what we want, since we will likely vote two local Labour people into Parliament this year? If we concentrate on telling the Government what we most want, and stop trying to tell it how it should deliver the services, we have a much better chance of getting the best result.
Read more

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Comment to What if? Dunedin:

Diane Yeldon
April 14, 2017 at 11:10 pm
“Harassing of the Government in an imagined party political fashion.” Well said by Hilary Calvert. Spot on!
Here’s the meeting video for 21 Feb. Starting from 1.58.24 into the video, you can watch the discussion on the resolution which authorised the [Dunedin Hospital SOS] campaign. This was the Notice of Motion put forward by Cr Benson-Pope and seconded by Cr Hawkins.
There was no information in the agenda about how much the ‘asking for support’ would cost or how the ‘asking for support’ would be carried out. Nor did any councillors ask questions about this. Their attention was focused solely on discussing the rights and wrongs of the hospital siting (with only a couple of councillors saying they didn’t think it was any of their business.)
I can’t help wondering if many of the councillors did not understood that this ‘asking for support’ would result in unleashing a full-blown advertising campaign with leaflet drop, website and newspaper ads costing so far $12,000! I wonder if the motion had been taken in two parts with the second part only about the campaign and its full extent and costs disclosed the majority would have still voted in favour.

Dunedin City Council Published on Feb 26, 2017
Dunedin City Council – Public Forum + Council Meeting – 21 February 2017
Minutes, agendas and reports related to this meeting can be found at https://goo.gl/Eis3sK

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[decisionmaker.co.nz] formatted by whatifdunedin

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 8.4.17 Questions over Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS campaign
● 6.4.17 ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild
● 27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
● 26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
● 6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
● 24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
● 9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: batmanrobin by Mike Luckovich 2016 @njc.com [via truthdig.com] tweaked by whatifdunedin

SDHB change management: 59 roles proposed to go

Updated post
Sat, 29 Apr 2017 at 6:37 p.m.

At Facebook:

### ODT Online Fri, 28 Apr 2017
Roles dumped in SDHB proposal
By Eileen Goodwin
The roles of chief operating officer (COO) and deputy chief executive will be dumped in a sweeping management restructure proposal unveiled at the Southern District Health Board. In the formal document released yesterday, chief executive Chris Fleming said a new director of specialist services would replace the COO role. The proposed restructuring would not slim the executive leadership team. Its number would increase by one to 13 (including the chief executive), but there is quite a bit of change in the make-up of the roles. The brunt of job losses would be borne at the next two levels of management.
Read more

****

Restructure proposal appears to break up a joint decision-making model which involves senior doctors and nurses.

Sat, 29 Apr 2017
Proposal devastates nurses
By Eileen Goodwin
Nurses are “devastate” by the proposed restructuring at the Southern District Health Board. New Zealand Nurses Organisation Dunedin organiser Lorraine Lobb said the proposal removed budgetary and operational control from nursing leadership. There would be fewer nurse management roles, and those who remained would have less say in decision-making, Mrs Lobb said. “We’re quite devastated by this proposal. We’re all about safe staffing, [and that] requires nursing leadership,” she said. The proposal would see a net loss of 23 management positions. It was unclear how many were nursing roles. […] The new chief nursing and midwifery officer would have no control over budgets as their underlings would only report to them on professional matters, she said. […] The proposal also removes operational responsibilities from the board’s top doctor, the chief medical officer. On operational matters, medical directors would report to the director of specialist services, rather than the chief medical officer.
Read more

█ SDHB to consider submissions before announcing the final structure in June.

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Related Posts and Comments:
8.4.17 Questions over Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS campaign
6.4.17 ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild
27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance

█ For more, enter the terms *hospital*, *sdhb* and *swann* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Questions over Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS campaign

Received from Diane Yeldon
Fri, 7 April 2017 at 4:06 p.m.

OPINION

What’s wrong with the DCC Dunedin Hospital SOS Campaign?

If you clear away all the smoke from the party-political bluster, bickering and name–calling arising over this campaign, has the Dunedin City Council really done anything out of order? Or were some councillors, in fact, a majority, just trying to do their best for the people of Dunedin?

Unfortunately, the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. A council communication cannot be a political advertisement.

The Electoral Act more or less defines a political advertisement as anything which persuades or encourages voters to vote in a particular way. But our democratic rights to participate in government decision-making are not limited to voting once every three years. Citizens also have the right to petition Government, make submissions to select committees and other public authorities and deliberative bodies, and lobby MPs and Government Ministers.

If local councillors had been presented with a motion which proposed the following : that the Council encourages and persuades voters to choose candidate A, they would have rightly been horrified and would have rejected it.

In comparison, a single, short and final paragraph in a council motion which proposes that the Council should ask for public support for ONLY its own preferred position on a central government decision, and that people make such views known to central government, looks harmless and is quite likely to pass unnoticed – and, in fact, did. But it is just as political. It encourages people to use their democratic rights in a particular way.

The council staff should have alerted councillors that this was the case and that such political activism was beyond the proper scope of any local body. The difference in wording may be subtle but the democratic principles involved are significant and far-reaching.

Monday, 3 April 2017

[ends]

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Dunedin City Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS petition states:
“I demand that central government redevelops Dunedin Hospital in the centre of the city. The government must also make a clear commitment to retain a top flight teaching hospital for Dunedin and the wider Otago/Southland region.
Save Our Site. Save Our Services.”

Petition at the DCC-managed SOS website [framed screenshot]

At the bottom of the webpage, DCC says:
“Dunedin Hospital SOS
The Dunedin City Council (“DCC”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) operates, hosts, or manages a number of websites, including DunedinHospitalSOS.nz. This site was created and funded following a Council resolution (21 February 2017) to communicate to Government its complete opposition to a rebuild of Dunedin Hospital outside the central city. It is not a permanent website.”

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How the petition got off the ground by Council vote (21 February 2017) on the Notice of Motion:

[screenshots – click to enlarge]

DCC Council 21.2.17 Agenda – 15 Notice of Motion Dunedin Hospital Rebuild

DCC Council 21.2.17 Minutes – 15 Notice of Motion Dunedin Hospital Rebuild

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The DCC Dunedin Hospital SOS flyer and Facebook campaign cost Ratepayers $7,102 (excl GST). Ratepayers also find themselves footing the bill for a DCC-led SOS media campaign:

ODT Online 8.4.17 [screenshot]

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 6.4.17 ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild
● 27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
● 26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
● 6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
● 24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
● 9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance

█ For more, enter the terms *hospital*, *sdhb* and *swann* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild

Junior councillors should think carefully about how they appear in writing and how they might appear in publicity shots on Frederick St, as a band of politicos.

BRAVO to the ODT Editor:

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Wisely, this editorial had already put dogsbodies in their place:

### ODT Online Thu, 30 Mar 2017
Editorial: Hospital central to city’s needs
OPINION What a shame the Dunedin City Council is divided over its campaign to keep the city’s hospital in the central city. This is an issue which should unite Dunedin. The squabbling is distressing. The council has initiated an effort to keep the rebuilt hospital right in town, with three councillors, Lee Vandervis, Mike Lord and Doug Hall, voting against. Dunedin-based National-list MP Michael Woodhouse waded in late last week, implying the campaign was a front for the Labour Party […] There are two fundamental issues. First, on the siting of the hospital, and second on whether the council should campaign on that. As as been pointed out strongly on this newspaper’s opinion page by two distinguished Dunedin residents, Sir David Skegg (a former University of Otago vice-chancellor) and Emeritus Prof David Jones (a former university medical division head), close links between the medical school and the hospital are vital.
Read more

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DCC’s ‘Dunedin Hospital SOS’ flyer and Facebook campaign cost Ratepayers $7,102 (excl GST).

[click to enlarge]

DCC says 55,000 campaign flyers were printed, with 50,000 supposedly delivered to households (however, thickish piles of flyers have been found by cleaners about town —gathering dust in corporate office tearooms and reception areas)….

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ODT 25.3.17 (page 1) – tweaked by whatifdunedin

### ODT Online Sat, 25 Mar 2017
Woodhouse blasts DCC
By Eileen Goodwin
National list MP Michael Woodhouse has lashed out at the Dunedin City Council over its hospital rebuild campaign, implying it is a front for the Labour Party. And Mr Woodhouse said the council’s stance was “confusing” — on the one hand it wants a central city rebuild, but it granted the Accident Compensation Corporation the right to consider buying the Frederick St car park. ACC has a 12-month timeframe to look at development options for the site. […] Mr Woodhouse is also ACC Minister, and he made it clear he was speaking as a local MP.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
● 26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
● 6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
● 24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
● 9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance
3.9.16 SDHB ‘food’ : Our eyes glaze over . . . .
23.8.16 Win! to DCC candidate Paul Pope #DunedinHospital
22.6.16 SDHB Commissioners speed-bleed health system
1.5.16 Hospital food according to Gurglars
23.12.15 SDHB underfunded, no bandage
3.11.15 SDHB will ‘takeaway’ more than freshly cooked meals and a head chef
30.10.15 Dunedin Hospital #despair
● 17.6.15 Southern District Health Board sacked !!!
9.6.15 Southern District Health Board
16.4.15 Talk of replacing Southern District Health Board with commissioner
21.8.14 Dirty pool? #SDHB #University
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
14.1.14 DCC: Hospital area parking changes #cyclelanes
5.12.13 Swann case: ODHB/SDHB and friends
3.8.12 Extraordinary editorials

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Site Notice #DunedinHospital

This afternoon David Benson-Pope requested an unreserved apology from the website owner following publication of an image and various comments at a now deleted post concerning the Save Our Hospital campaign that was highlighted in a newspaper story published on 25 March 2017.

The website owner unreservedly apologises to Mr Benson-Pope for the publication of this material and any resulting discomfort or distress it may have caused.

An apology will be emailed to Mr Benson-Pope shortly, copy Sandy Graham, DCC.

Elizabeth Kerr
Site Owner

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Reference:

### ODT Online Sat, 25 Mar 2017
Woodhouse blasts DCC
By Eileen Goodwin
National list MP Michael Woodhouse has lashed out at the Dunedin City Council over its hospital rebuild campaign, implying it is a front for the Labour Party. And Mr Woodhouse said the council’s stance was “confusing” — on the one hand it wants a central city rebuild, but it granted the Accident Compensation Corporation the right to consider buying the Frederick St car park. ACC has a 12-month timeframe to look at development options for the site. […] Mr Woodhouse is also ACC Minister, and he made it clear he was speaking as a local MP.
Read more

[ends]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment

ODT Online public notice:

[SDHB media release]

Public forum chance to learn more about Dunedin Hospital facilities

Friday, 17 February 2017

The public is being given the opportunity to learn more about how Dunedin’s new hospital facilities might be configured at an event being held at the end of this month.

A public forum will be held on the evening of Tuesday 28 February to update interested members of the Dunedin community on the redevelopment of Dunedin Hospital.

“The public forum is an opportunity for people to get a better understanding of how we are deciding what facilities we need and where to deliver the best health outcomes for the Southern district. It will provide a great opportunity for people to understand the kinds of issues the team has to find answers for before the architects can complete their work, and the time frames involved in the design and building process,” Chair of the Southern Partnership Group Andrew Blair says.

The forum will include a presentation, followed by a question and answer session.

Southern DHB Commissioner Kathy Grant says the forum will give the community an opportunity to learn how the project is about more than just replacing buildings.

“We want to take this opportunity for members of the public to come along and get a better understanding of this exciting project and the opportunity it presents for developing facilities that can support a modern healthcare system capable of addressing the needs of the next 40-50 years.”

Further information on the project is available at: http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/hospital-redevelopment-projects/dunedin-hospital-redevelopment-project

Public forum details
Date: Tuesday 28 February
Time: 6-7pm
Location: Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum, 419 Gt King Street, Dunedin

Media contact:
SPG Chair Andrew Blair
andrew @blairconsulting.co.nz

SDHB Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF

140 Hanover St [rankedbyreview.co.nz]

Pool upgrade supposed to happen a year ago this month.

### ODT Online Mon, 23 Jan 2017
Grant lost as physio pool work stalls
By Eileen Goodwin
A $120,000 grant has been pulled from the Dunedin physiotherapy pool upgrade because no-one yet knows when — or even if — it will happen. And the Otago Therapeutic Pool Trust has confirmed a second grant, of $100,000, is subject to an extension review and a decision is awaited.
Pool trust secretary-treasurer Neville Martin […] hopes to know more by June, when the Ministry of Health is expected to release a shortlist of site options for the $300 million Dunedin Hospital rebuild.
Read more

“To avoid closure of the pool by the Southern District Health Board, the trust has been required to cover all operating costs since the beginning of 2015.” –Neville Martin

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Related Posts and Comments:
2.10.16 WHO says ‘heritage rules are too restrictive’ —What’s their agenda in the Heritage City
21.8.14 Dirty pool? #SDHB #University
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health

[govt.nz]

“By not declaring all interests, particularly the pecuniary interests, exposes the DHB to an increase in conflict of interest risk and potential for reputational damage.” –Report, Audit New Zealand

The auditors were also disappointed at a lack of progress in other areas. There were no up-to-date disaster recovery plans, a shortcoming identified previously. (ODT)

### ODT Online Mon, 9 Jan 2017
SDHB rapped over non-disclosures
By Eileen Goodwin
Audit New Zealand has told the Southern District Health Board to sharpen up its act on financial  disclosures after finding some interests had not been declared. Commissioner Kathy Grant made new declarations after the issue was raised by auditors, she confirmed to the Otago Daily Times. Mrs Grant had not realised they had to be declared.
….In its 2015-16 audit, Audit New Zealand recommended the DHB implement regular checks of the New Zealand companies office register to check for non-disclosures.
….The auditors said the DHB’s “key challenge” was maintaining sustainable services while trying to improve its financial position.
Read more

● Kathy Grant is a consultant at Dunedin law firm Gallaway Cook Allan.

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Southern District Health Board
End of year update on the Dunedin Hospital redevelopment project
Wednesday, 14 December 2016
The Southern Partnership Group (SPG) is pleased with progress towards having an Indicative Business Case, with a shortlist of options for the redevelopment of Dunedin Hospital, completed by mid-next year. “Despite the ambitious timeframe, we’ve met our deadline to workshop the longlist of options by Christmas and are on track to have that narrowed down to a shortlist by mid next year,” SPG Chair Andrew Blair says. “The longlist options range on a spectrum from replacing the Clinical Services Building and refurbishing or replacing the Ward Block, to moving all hospital facilities to an entirely new hospital campus either nearby or somewhere else in Dunedin City….”
Read more

█ SDHB Annual Report 2016

█ Audit NZ 2015-16 Management Report

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Michael Lewis : The Undoing Project —Interview with Kathryn Ryan #RNZ

Link received 27/12/2016 at 3:21 p.m.
Message: A lesson for some Dunedin ‘luminaries’ perchance?

It’s amazing how resistant, particularly powerful men, are to people coming from outside and giving them advice on how to make decisions.
—Michael Lewis

RNZ National
Trust your gut? Think again
From Nine To Noon with Kathryn Ryan, 10:09 am on 21 December 2016

[Abridged.] Michael Lewis is one of the most famous non-fiction writers in America. He has written 14 books, edited one and is a regular contributor to Vanity Fair. His books include the global best-selling Flash Boys – an expose of high speed scamming in the stock market; The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine – an account of shady financial transactions and accounting that led to the 2008 global financial meltdown and on which the film The Big Short was based and Moneyball, the story of a maverick outsider who beat the system.

Lewis’s new book is called The Undoing Project in which he profiles the professional and personal relationship between the behavioural psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Kahneman and Tversky’s work shed new light on how humans make decisions when faced with risk and uncertainty. They established that we generally trust our gut instinct, over the evidence, to guide our decision-making.

[simonandschuster.com]

Lewis says he came across Kahneman and Tversky after writing Moneyball. He says the two were very different personalities and that made for the perfect team.

“They sensed in the other something they wished they had. Kahneman is an unbelievable creative mind he really has a mind more like a poet or a novelist filled with these flashing insights about human nature. Tversky wanted to be a poet but he has a scientific, logical mind. He’s a brilliant logician.”

The two decide to come together and study how the human mind works. That work became an examination of human fallibility – the weakness of the human mind. They designed experiments to show how our mind plays tricks on us.

One they stumbled on was a phenomenon they called anchoring that skews human decisions. They also established that we are terrible at assessing risk – we rate risk based on what’s most memorable which tends to be what happened most recently.

[marketwatch.com]

“People long for the world to be a far more certain place than it is, instead of dealing with uncertainties they tell stories that make it seem much more certain and respond to stories that make it seem much more certain than it is. A politician speaking in certain terms as if he’s infallible has weirdly an advantage – even though we shouldn’t believe him. We’re very vulnerable to people who simulate certainty.”

Lewis is unsure whether this inbuilt fallibility can be fixed.

“I hate to sound fatalistic but one of the big takeaways from [Kahneman and Tversky’s] work is just how hard it is to correct for human fallibility – they equate cognitive illusion with optical illusion.”
Read more

█ Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (26′07″)

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Michael Monroe Lewis (born Oct 15, 1960) was born in New Orleans to corporate lawyer J. Thomas Lewis and community activist Diana Monroe Lewis. He attended the college preparatory Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. He then attended Princeton University where he received a BA degree (cum laude) in Art History in 1982 and was a member of the Ivy Club. He went on to work with New York art dealer Daniel Wildenstein. He enrolled in the London School of Economics, and received his MA degree in Economics in 1985. Lewis was hired by Salomon Brothers and moved to New York for their training program. He worked at its London office as a bond salesman. He resigned to write Liar’s Poker and become a financial journalist. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 2009. More at Wikipedia.

Vanity Fair – Hive: Politics
█ Donald Trump and the Rules of the New American Board Game
By Michael Lewis Dec 18, 2016 7:00 pm
While volunteering at his daughter’s new high school, Michael Lewis watched kids of all races and backgrounds react to Trump’s election with a peaceful demonstration of their grief and fear. It inspired a game he’s devised for thinking about the future. Link

Vanity Fair – Hive: Politics
█ Obama’s Way
By Michael Lewis Sep 11, 2012 6:12 pm
To understand how air-force navigator Tyler Stark ended up in a thornbush in the Libyan desert in March 2011, one must understand what it’s like to be president of the United States—and this president in particular. Hanging around Barack Obama for six months, in the White House, aboard Air Force One, and on the basketball court, Michael Lewis learns the reality of the Nobel Peace Prize winner who sent Stark into combat. Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: Michael Lewis by Tabitha Soren / W.W. Norton Company
blackwhite by whatifdunedin

DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research

SOMEBODY please work out how many individual car parks stand to be LOST from the CBD —all down to Council making things TOUGH for vehicle users in the Central City.

Starter list via Central City Plan and other developments:
(calculate how many individual car parks lost for each proposal)

1) Rerouting of SH1 one-way through Warehouse area and Queens Gardens ?
2) New segregated cycleways on SH1 one-way system from Warehouse area to North Dunedin ?
3) Pedestrianisation affecting Octagon, lower Stuart St and sections of George St ?
4) Hotel and apartment building, Filleul St/Moray Place ?
5) ORC Headquarters for Dowling St Carpark ? [a great site for ACC]
6) ACC office building for Frederick St Carpark ?
7) New Hospital, block bounded by Cumberland, Frederick, Castle and Hanover Sts ?
8) ORC bus hub (interchange) for Great King St and vicinity ?
9) Other ???

DCC Webmap or Google Earth will give the relative range of car park numbers. A quick sum will do.

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Mayor Cull might wonder why there’s little or no “growth” likely for Dunedin.

Apart from lack of on street car parking, another starter : the city’s ‘health and position’ is undermined by the degraded Aurora power network that offers NO security of supply ahead. What does this mean for Businesses and Ratepayers via increased Rates and Line Charges, how many Business and Ratepayer defaults ??

After 25-30 years of deliberate neglect to the Aurora network, striving for “economic development” at Dunedin is nigh “Mission Impossible”.

DCC can’t afford to bring the Aurora network up to compliance —as Mayor Cull was told last Tuesday in a private meeting, it will cost a Billion Dollars to do renewals in Dunedin and Central Otago (not counting new build facilities to meet demand in Central Otago).

DCC are well and truly caught with their pants down.

THE BEST THING Central Otago people can do is buy their power network. Once made Safe, their network will generate revenue for expansion across CODC and QLDC growth areas ….Leaving sorry old Dunedin to an impecunious spiral of doom and disaster. How to rid the Dunedin millstone should be uppermost in Central Otago leaders’ minds right now.

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DCC Webmap – Frederick St Carpark JanFeb 2013 (highlighted)

DCC Webmap – Dunedin Hospital and University health sciences JanFeb 2013

The Mayor and Councillors might think it’s AOK to skip out of an agreement with Southern Partnership Group, the Government-appointed hospital rebuild group…. SDHB and University of Otago had hoped to coordinate their future use of Frederick St carpark; it was a practical and logical proposal for university health sciences and the hospital precinct. Until…. the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) came along, with DCC then deciding to go for a quick buck. Why didn’t DCC offer ACC the Dowling St carpark, instead ? —a better centrally located construction site for the Corporation office building would be hard to find, one that could include public parking on its lower levels (and say BYE to ‘ORC imperialism’).

Squirrelling the Frederick St plum to ACC is the dumbest thing this Council could do. Student graduates – if that is the Mayor’s excuse for the Frederick St debacle – are quite capabable of walking to Queens Gardens for future employ.

Really, there never was a more useless ineffectual Southern town on the map. It has every deterrent sign needed for raccoons and new business. Tumbleweeds, cloned by Mayor Cull.

****

But wait.

Is Southern Partnership Group running scared after finding out how much it costs (a massive sum) to deal to Aurora’s transformer installation located inside the block bounded by Cumberland, Frederick, Castle and Hanover Sts – first site option for the hospital rebuild ?

The network facility comprises old transformers that could blow at any time. Of poor design, the transformers are not isolated from each other : if one transformer blows, they all do. To fuel the fireball, the transformers sit in a pool of oil. The cost to replace or relocate the facility is enough to ‘blow’ the hospital rebuild budget.

OTHER site options for the hospital rebuild rapidly gather impetus.

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Wakari Hospital [affinityservices.co.nz]

The “somewhere else” option is likely to be Wakari Hospital.
No final decisions will be made until 2018.

### ODT Online Sat, 17 Dec 2016
Hospital may be relocated
By Eileen Goodwin
The Government is considering shifting Dunedin Hospital away from Great King St. A “long list” of site options for the $300 million hospital rebuild includes shifting “all hospital facilities” to a different part of the city. While there has long been speculation about another site, the possibility was revealed in a press statement from the Government-appointed rebuild group. Southern Partnership Group chairman Andrew Blair declined to release the long-list document to the Otago Daily Times, saying it was a “work in progress” … The list was written by consultants, the Ministry of Health, the Southern District Health Board and the partnership group.
Read more

[click to enlarge]
Google Earth – Wakari Hospital 2016

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If the public hospital was to move from the CBD…..
IMPACTS include:

● Reduced Inner City Vibrancy
● Less Easy Repore and Connection with University of Otago Health Sciences, including Schools of Medicine and Dentistry
● Less Opportunity for NEW Complementary Business Activity/Support in CBD
● Loss of existing Complementary Business Activity and Support in CBD
● Potentially, (ahem) MORE carparks available in the CBD !!
● Distance/Isolation Problem for Hospital patients, their families and supports
● Distance/Isolation Problem for Hospital shift staff between their place of work, homes and CBD
Etc Etc.

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THE NEWS

ACC given 12-month exclusive due diligence period with view to buying Frederick St Carpark to build multi-storey building. DCC reneged on previous undertaking to earmark site for Dunedin Hospital redevelopment.

15.12.16
ODT: Councillors ‘railroaded’ into carpark decision
Dunedin city councillors were “railroaded” into their decision about the Frederick St car park, and given inadequate information about the risk of pulling out, Cr Lee Vandervis says. Cr Vandervis has taken issue with the Dunedin City Council for presenting the decision last week as “unanimous”, and the council has admitted that was wrong. […] The discussion and decision were held behind closed doors, and councillors were prevented from speaking publicly. Two councillors – Andrew Whiley and Damian Newell – were informally reprimanded for speaking to the Otago Daily Times about the deal. Cont/

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University of Otago Chief Operating Officer Stephen Willis says proposed ACC building in the middle of area envisaged for health and education precinct. “You’ve got the two book-end anchor institutes and then you bring another one right in the middle that has nothing really to do with health, education, or research.”

11.12.16
ODT: DCC’s ACC building deal criticised
Reneging on an undertaking to earmark a strategic piece of land for the Dunedin Hospital rebuild has undermined the city’s two leading institutions, former Dunedin City councillor Hilary Calvert says. Ms Calvert has criticised the decision to give the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) an exclusive 12-month period to explore options for the Frederick St car park. The council had earlier said it would earmark the site for the health precinct envisaged by the University of Otago. The precinct depends on  Government decisions on the $300 million hospital rebuild, which will not be made until 2018. Cont/

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8.12.16
ODT: Council backs off land deal
The Dunedin City Council has backed out of its undertaking to allow the Frederick St car park to be used for the $300 million redevelopment of Dunedin Hospital. Instead, the site has been promised to the Accident Compensation Corporation, which is considering consolidating its operations to a proposed multi-storey building there. “That was then,” Mayor Dave Cull said of the council’s change of heart since October when it said the land was earmarked for the hospital. […] ACC has a significant presence in the city, with about 430 roles across the three sites. Cont/

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15.11.16
ODT: Upgrade on hold till land swap clearer
A planned $8.1 million refurbishment of Hayward College has been postponed because the residential hall might be part of a land-swap with the Southern District Health Board so the area can be used for the Dunedin Hospital rebuild. Yesterday, the University of Otago confirmed it had put off the refurbishment until next year so that it does not go ahead while the Frederick St building’s future is unclear. Cont/

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“We are aware that it might be important, and that’s why we’re having discussions with them to make sure that we don’t do anything that rules out any use for the site.” –Sue Bidrose, DCC

15.10.16
ODT: Health precinct mooted
Dunedin Hospital could be partly rebuilt on land owned by the University of Otago and become part of a university health precinct under a potential land swap. The university has confirmed it is willing to consider a land swap, whereby it  would own the clinical services building. The Dunedin City Council confirmed it has earmarked the Frederick St car park as a potential part of the plan. The university owns land in the Fraser building block, and on two other sides of the hospital campus. If approved by the Government, it could remove the logistical headache of building on a cramped clinical site. The first business case will go to the Cabinet next year, followed by a detailed one in 2018. Cont/

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11.2.16
ODT: Green light for $8m cycleways
Construction could begin this year on Dunedin’s $8 million separated cycleways along the city’s one-way system. The New Zealand Transport Agency, which will fund the work, has signed off on a detailed business case setting out the need and basic design of the cycleways. They will be separated from traffic by concrete kerbing and will run along the right-hand side of both the northbound and southbound one-way routes. […] While car parking issues were a potential negative, business owners along the route had offered clever and positive ideas about how those problems could be minimised. Converting the council’s Frederick St car park to a multistorey facility was also “on our radar”, Cr Wilson said. Cont/

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22.4.14
ODT: DCC mulls Frederick St development
A multi-storey development housing parking and businesses is being considered for the Dunedin City Council-owned Frederick St car park site. A report sent to councillors this week reveals council staff have already had discussions with several parties interested, as tenants or developers, in a development on the site. The report discusses three options for a separated cycle lane through the central city, and a parking study done in the area. It also considers possible ways to mitigate the potential loss of car parks – the major public concern about any new lanes – including possibly providing more commercial parking, such as a parking building. If the council chooses to provide about 100 extra parks on side streets as suggested, the total number of car parks lost to the lane would range from between 80 and 284 under the various options. Cont/

****

20.6.12
ODT: Council seeks $15 million portfolio boost
The Dunedin City Council is sitting on a half-billion-dollar property empire, but the man charged with managing it has big plans to expand … [City Property manager Robert Clark] was appointed to his post in late 2008 … Mr Clark was eyeing several potential projects in Dunedin, including a partnership with an interested private developer to build a $15 million hotel and car-park complex, or one of several variations, on the council’s Dowling St car park. Other plans included an $8 million four-storey car park and retail complex on the existing Frederick St car park. Neither project had been signed off by councillors, but both were expected to be considered later this year, with a possibility one, but not both, would proceed. Cont/

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance

[glasbergen.com]

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“I read it in the paper — all the information I’m getting is from the ODT. Management doesn’t talk to us, really.” –Prof Jean-Claude Theis

### ODT Online Mon, 7 Nov 2016
Patients turned away
By Eileen Goodwin
Nearly a third of orthopaedic patients referred for a first specialist assessment are being turned away from Dunedin Hospital, and the situation is becoming “untenable”, orthopaedic surgeon Prof Jean-Claude Theis says. The Dunedin School of Medicine professor of orthopaedic surgery  said the relationship with Southern DHB management had become “very bad”. Orthopaedic surgeons were not consulted about a recent decision to outsource 129 surgeries. Prof Theis had not known about the outsourcing until an Otago Daily Times story a little over a week ago. […] “With management, we’re not getting anywhere. There’s no engagement. There’s no clinical governance any more, across the hospital.”
Read more

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Locum ophthalmologist Dr Peter Haddad last week blasted the SDHB for keeping quiet, calling the decision “grossly unethical”.

### ODT Online Mon, 7 Nov 2016
ODT: SDHB wanted ‘free and frank’ debate
By Eileen Goodwin
The need for “free and frank” debate among Southern District Health Board bosses meant they kept quiet about the growing ophthalmology waiting list and cases of patient harm. The issue was not discussed in hospital directorate reports presented at public committee meetings since May, when those meetings resumed. […] The board notified patients less than two weeks before the release of the annual national adverse events report, later this week, in which patient-harm cases have to be disclosed. It will show 30 cases of harm from ophthalmology delays in 2015-16. There is likely to be more recent cases not included in the report …. [Interim chief executive Chris Fleming] admitted patients should have been told sooner. In an interview last week, Mr Fleming argued the situation was in part “good news”.
Read more

****

[inkcinct.com]

Sun, 6 Nov 2016
ODT: Petition started about hospital rebuild
Frustration with what she sees as lack of progress on the rebuilding of Dunedin Hospital’s clinical services block has prompted a Dunedin woman to circulate a petition she wants people to send direct to the Prime Minister or National MPs. Those who sign will “pledge not to support the National Party in the next general election unless we have an officially approved blueprint from the Government, acceptable to staff at the hospital and the medical school, to rebuild the clinical services block at the Dunedin Hospital by November 2017”. Cont/

Sat, 5 Nov 2016
ODT: Mental health petition delivered to Parliament
Dunedin mental health campaigners delivered a petition to Parliament this week calling for a nationwide inquiry. The Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust collected 1740 signatures. Chairwoman Corinda Taylor, with Denise Kent, presented the petition to Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox on the steps of Parliament on Wednesday. “The petition respectfully requests the House of Representatives to conduct a nationwide inquiry into mental health services to determine if current services meet the demand and if future planning is adequate to meet future demand.” Cont/

Fri, 4 Nov 2016
ODT: SDHB conduct ‘unethical’
Not telling patients sooner that they risked permanent sight loss from delayed hospital appointments was “grossly unethical”, says an eye doctor who last year warned the board about the problem. In response, the Southern District Health Board admitted yesterday it should have told patients earlier. More than 4600 patients have been notified they are overdue for their ophthalmology appointment. In the past two years, 34 patients have lost part of their sight permanently, and that number is likely to increase. Cont/

Thu, 3 Nov 2016
ODT Editorial: Eye off the ball?
OPINION The latest revelations around ophthalmology pressures at the Southern District Health Board are confronting, and the problems are only part of the iceberg nationally. Earlier this week, this newspaper reported patients were going partially blind while they waited for SDHB appointments. […] Fixing or managing problems can prevent issues compounding, and alleviate financial and physical pressures on the health system further down the line. […] Commissioner Kathy Grant has said she has confidence in SDHB medical oversight and governance, yet the problem is such that the board is prepared for more cases of harm to emerge and has notified more than 4600 patients they have been identified as being overdue for appointments. Cont/

Wed, 2 Nov 2016
ODT: Ministry of Health ‘ducking’
The Ministry of Health has been accused of “ducking responsibility” on the hospital eye appointment “disaster”. The ophthalmology pressures at the Southern District Health Board have caused some patients to go partially blind while waiting for an appointment. The senior doctors’ union and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists say problems highlighted in the SDHB are widespread throughout New Zealand. Cont/

****

“The problem has been exacerbated by the state of our information systems not being able to clearly identify this issue.” –Commissioner Kathy Grant

Wed, 2 Nov 2016
ODT: Grant stands behind Southern DHB
Commissioner Kathy Grant declined to be interviewed yesterday about the patient harm cluster in ophthalmology, but says she has confidence in Southern District Health Board medical oversight and governance. In a statement, Mrs Grant said she was told about Dunedin Hospital’s ophthalmology waiting list problem in the middle of this year. This week the board revealed 30 patients suffered partial sight loss in 2015-16 because of overdue appointments, on top of a group of four patients the year before. Six of the 30 have a “severe” degree of loss. […] The board has admitted it is not on top of the situation in Dunedin, and more cases of harm may emerge. More than 4600 affected patients have been notified. Cont/

2.11.16 ODT: Eye clinic treatment lists blow out

Sun, 30 Oct 2016
ODT: Extra orthopaedic operations sought
The Southern District Health Board is trying to find an external provider for an extra 129 orthopaedic surgery cases in a bid to meet a national health target. A request for proposal issued last week on a government website says SDHB would fund up to 129 extra orthopaedic procedures in 2016-17 in order to achieve a national health target. […] Orthopaedic surgery waiting times have been a source of tension between DHB management and orthopaedic surgeons. Surgeons have lobbied for more operations, and have suggested southern orthopaedic patients need to be more debilitated than in other parts of the country before qualifying for surgery. Cont/

Sat, 29 Oct 2016
ODT: Doctors’ strike caused hundreds of postponements
The Southern District Health Board has released new figures showing the impact of the junior doctors’ strike. Fifty-two patients had a procedure postponed and 725 outpatients had a hospital appointment postponed. Another 52 patients were not booked for an appointment or procedure once the strike notice was received, the board told the Otago Daily Times yesterday. Cont/

█ For more, enter the terms *sdhb*, *southern district health board*, *hospital*, *commissioner*, *food*, *pool*, *south link health*, *swann* or *white collar criminals* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

[wolfescape.com]

WHO says ‘heritage rules are too restrictive’ —What’s their agenda in the Heritage City

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS

St Joseph’s and the Dominican Priory, Smith St [cardcow.com]

‘A new roof for Dunedin’s Dominican Priory, considered one of New Zealand’s most important and at-risk historic buildings, is a big step closer following a $100,000 grant. [The] Dunedin Heritage Fund had committed the money from its 2016-17 budget. The 139-year old priory was built to house the city’s Dominican nuns and provide teaching space for girls. Despite its vast scale and elaborate construction – its floating concrete staircase and double-glazed music room were cutting edge designs in their day – the building received little maintenance over its working life.’ –Gerald Scanlan, Catholic Diocese of Dunedin (ODT)

19.2.16 ODT: Boost for restoration of priory (+ video)
12.5.16 ODT: DCC commits $100,000 to priory restoration
27.6.16 ODT: Priory future gets clean slate

*The Dunedin Heritage Fund is administered by representatives of Dunedin City Council and Heritage New Zealand.

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MORE GOOD NEWS

Dunedin Prison “big-picture project” [dunedinprisontrust.co.nz]

‘The Dunedin Prison Trust has raised about $500,000 to start the first stage of its development programme to return the [old prison] building to its original appearance. […] Last year, the trust lodged a planning application with the Dunedin City Council detailing about $250,000 of restorative work which would return the prison’s exterior to its original 1896 condition. The application included work on the building’s roof and walls, as well as seismic strengthening, work expected to cost another $250,000.’ (ODT)

24.8.16 ODT: Restoration begins on historic prison
2.9.16 ODT: Captive audience for prison project
17.9.16 ODT: Old prison roof being restored

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GOOD NEWS CONTINUES

Dunedin Courthouse [panoramio.com]

‘Refurbishing and strengthening Dunedin’s historic courthouse is expected to cost more than $18 million, according to a building consent approved by the Dunedin City Council. The consent includes detailed designs that council building services manager Neil McLeod says involve some of the most extensive earthquake-strengthening ever undertaken in the city. The plans also show the extent to which the Ministry of Justice plans on returning the building to its former glory.’ (ODT)

10.9.16 ODT: $18m to be spent on court upgrade
29.9.16 ODT: Courthouse restoration set to begin
30.9.16 ODT: Dunedin firm wins courthouse contract

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BAD NEWS

‘The Physio Pool is one of the largest warm water swimming pools in New Zealand and Dunedin’s only therapeutic swimming pool. The temperature is always kept around 35 degrees. We feature wheelchair accessibility, hoist and private changing rooms. The benefits of warm water exercise are tremendous and have an extremely positive impact on the quality of life for all ages. We are open to the public and offer a non-threatening environment for swimming, aqua jogging, individual exercise programmes, or warm water relaxation.’ —physiopool.org.nz

### ODT Online Sat, 1 Oct 2016
Pool heritage status opposed
By Vaughan Elder
The Southern District Health Board is fighting a proposal to classify  Dunedin’s already endangered physio pool site as a heritage building, saying it may have to be demolished as part of a hospital redevelopment. This comes as the Property Council and the University of Otago are set to argue at next week’s  Second Generation Dunedin City District Plan (2GP) hearings that proposed rules aimed at protecting the city’s heritage buildings are too restrictive.
Read more

█ Heritage New Zealand | Otago Therapeutic Pool List No. 7581
Historical information and Heritage significance at http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details?id=7581

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FURTHER BAD NEWS AND PILLOCKS

Criticism of the [second generation district] plan comes after praise in recent times for the council for its proactive approach towards saving the city’s heritage buildings.

### ODT Online Sun, 2 Oct 2016
Heritage rules deemed too restrictive
By Vaughan Elder
The Dunedin City Council’s proposed new heritage rules are too restrictive and property owners should have more freedom to demolish uneconomic heritage buildings, the Property Council says. This comes as Second Generation Dunedin City District Plan (2GP) commissioners are set to hear arguments next week about a new set of rules aimed at protecting the city’s heritage buildings. The University of Otago is also among submitters to have expressed concern about rules,  planner and policy adviser Murray Brass saying they had the potential to  reduce protection by making it more difficult to maintain and use heritage buildings.
A summary on the 2GP website said the changes included addressing the threat of “demolition by neglect” by making it easier to put old buildings to new uses and requiring resource consent for most changes to identified heritage buildings and “character-contributing” buildings within defined heritage precincts.
The new rules have prompted a strong response.
Read more

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FOR HISTORIC HERITAGE

Second Generation District Plan (2GP) – Heritage
Read all Heritage topic documents including reports, evidence and submissions to date at: https://2gp.dunedin.govt.nz/2gp/hearings-schedule/heritage.html

Documents
● Notice of Hearing
● Agenda
● Speaking Schedule – updated 29 September

Council Evidence
● Section 42A report
● Section 42A report addendum

DCC expert evidence
● Statement of evidence of Glen Hazelton [Policy planner – heritage]

█ Download: s42a Heritage Report with appendices (PDF, 5 MB)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.

Carisbrook turnstile building, Neville St | HNZ Category 1 historic place
[filmcameraworkshop.com]

SDHB ‘food’ : Our eyes glaze over . . . .

Main, Dunedin Hospital – 1 May 2016 [Gurglars Media]

Fri, 2 Sep 2016
ODT: Petition calls on SDHB to ditch Compass
A petition calling on the Southern District Health Board to ditch its contract with the company supplying hospital meals in the area has been presented to the board’s commissioner. Real Meals coalition spokesperson Anna Huffstutler said they had gathered 3000 signatures for their petition to get rid of Compass. “We want the Compass contract gone, and the job of preparing hospital meals and Meals on Wheels back where it belongs – in hospital kitchens where local ingredients are used and local people are doing the work.”

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Deputy commissioner Richard Thomson said a survey of SDHB patients showed satisfaction with meals in July was over 90%.

Sat, 3 Sep 2016
ODT: Anti-Compass deal petition presented
A petition calling for the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) to end the contentious Compass food contract was presented to SDHB commissioner Kathy Grant yesterday. The SDHB has faced criticism over the quality of the frozen meals since previously in-house hospital kitchen meals were outsourced in January. [Dunedin South MP Clare Curran] said the Compass contract was a “flawed project” which had caused a lot of grief for people in Otago and Southland.

### dunedintv.co.nz Thu 1 Sep 2016
The South Today
Petition calls for dumping of Compass contract
A food-oriented organisation has called on the Southern District Health Board to end its contract with Compass. The Real Meals Coalition has gathered thousands of signatures supporting the dumping of the contract. The quality of Compass meals in the region’s hospitals has been called ‘rubbish’. The petition, with 3000 signatures on it, is going to be presented to Commissioner Kathy Grant tomorrow. Compass has a 15 year contract with the DHB to provide ready-made meals, which some have criticised as disgusting and inedible.
Ch39 Link

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Related Posts and Comments:
1.5.16 Hospital food according to Gurglars
8.4.16 Worsted
23.12.15 SDHB underfunded, no bandage
3.11.15 SDHB will ‘takeaway’ more than freshly cooked meals…
30.10.15 Dunedin Hospital #despair
17.6.15 Southern District Health Board sacked !!!
9.6.15 Southern District Health Board
16.4.15 Talk of replacing SDHB with commissioner
21.8.14 Dirty pool? #SDHB #University
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
5.12.13 Swann case: ODHB/SDHB and friends

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.

C R I M E • against • S O C I E T Y

Commissioners who should know better

Kathy Grant
Richard Thomson
Graham Crombie
Angela Pitchford

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### ODT Online Wed, 15 Jun 2016
$7000pw fees and expenses
By Eileen Goodwin
The commissioner regime is costing the Southern District Health Board more than $7000 in fees and expenses every week, an Official Information Act request shows. Between November 17 and May 17, the commissioner team incurred $159,600 daily fees and $25,405 for travel, accommodation and food.
As commissioner, Kathy Grant receives the biggest daily fee, $1400, and over six months she charged for 55.5 days, a total of $77,700. Mrs Grant’s annual pay is capped at $180,000.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: virtuartgallery.com – leaving shame behind (Peters)

Hospital food according to Gurglars

Late this afternoon whatifdunedin briefly visited Gurglars at Dunedin Hospital and within that time was able to confirm it was indeed he in an HD bed; that he comes with iPhone and iPad – we are now with photo evidence [loading]. Gurglars is in fine fettle for one poised to miss duck shooting season.
Whatiffers, join with us (telepathy will do!) in sending Best Wishes for Gurglars’ full recovery. The truth is he went mushrooming at Otakou yesterday —in so doing he suffered a calamity, meaning he missed out on fresh wild mushrooms, too. Gourmet horror!
Twas very nice to meet the gentle spy and seditionist Gurglars.

REPORT 1 (Dunedin Hospital)

Received from Gurglars
Sun, 1 May 2016 at 1:04 p.m.

My recipe for filet de boeuf cordon rouge is a hit and my pumpkin soup brought me to Dunedin, I have dined on Vongole regularly and whilst some call me a gourmand I consider myself a gourmet!

So you can take my take on the SDHB food without a grain of salt or you can believe the photographs. [to come once technology sorted. -Eds]

I am unable to compare today’s food with the previous system because it is 30 years ago that I last ate it.

However my impressions of the Dunedin Hospital, the St John’s ambulance crew and the triage care has really opened my eyes to the dedication, work ethic and skill of the Hospital surgeons, doctors, nurses and carers that work here/there. An unquestionable 10/10 for every one of them.

However this is a food critique and I now know how Compass intend to make savings.

Emergency Department tucker

Dinner – small bowl of soup, palatable but made from a soup mix – 1 sandwich fresh but an unlimited use-by date, small in size, ham one slice, boiled egg part of – tea with milk.

Soup for dinner- half mast and PAP

Breakfast – two slices of dry well cooked toast, butter and marmalade in sachets, not enough to cover toast – tea with milk.

Lunch – smaller bowl of pumpkin soup from packet or powder tin, tending to gluggy pap, slightly larger sandwich with sliced ham and packaged grated cheese – tea with milk.

Soup for Lunch not bad

Dinner – if it looks like a ….

Compass’s savings will come from quantity savings, also I would guess if you added that lot together without labour cost the total would be less than $2. Total of slices of bread, 2 slices of ham, one butter, 2 marmalade, 2 heaped tablespoons of tinned soup.

Looks like I’m in here for another day or so, so an update is likely.

REPORT 2 (Dunedin Hospital)

Received from Gurglars
Sun, 1 May 2016 at 5:52 p.m.

It’s official folks, the resident subversive who had to almost croak to get a chance to review the SDHB food has done it.

I understand I’ve been awarded the VC* for twice endangering my life in the service of my adopted country.

When, I came here to NZ in 1972, I noticed two strange things:

1. The beer and soft drinks were kept in the old English manner – sans Fridge, drunk lukewarm and VB was unavailable.

2. There was only one restaurant in Dunedin, the Huntsman which is still there and a tribute to steak lovers worldwide. There was La Scala but in those days it was a bit exxy for me. In other places in New Zealand the food was dreadful.

Fast Forward to the internet age and Dunedin boasts some three Michelin star quality eateries and a myriad of great food palaces where one cannot spend $10 for lunch and should be charged $50 for the quality.

So we come to Compass, think New Zealand just after the war, canned tuna, cooked to tastelessness with some frozen carrots and other mixed veges of a frozen variety and some boiled silverbeet stalks and two white sweet potatoes boiled to submission and some edible mashed potato. I was prescient when I said in report one that take what I said without a grain of salt or pepper or margarine or butter.

Pap has been mentioned and Pap it is.

Oh and I forgot the dessert (sweets to me). A bright green jelly that tasted as bad as it looked and a packaged icecream which is bloody hard to stuff up unless you do not freeze it.

Looks like Lime! Dessert
You wouldn’t swim in it for fear of contracting brucellosis

Icecream- runny! Use-by date 31/4/2016 (served to patients 1/5/16)

If I’m still here tomorrow and apparently that’s no surety they’ll have another chance, but one must say in finality a couple of conclusions–

Neither Mrs Coleman senior or junior can boil an egg and probably burn water and the Mr Coleman bill at Bellamy’s is a tribute to his parsimony because he doesn’t have a bloody clue what food should taste and look like to be palatable.

*The VC to those who do not know is the Valid Comment awarded only to those prepared to give their lives to truth and exposing the American Way (Now that Trumped you didn’t it!)

—

Menu showing FULL Meal relates to Tuna stew (have I spelled that correctly?)

whatifdunedin says: In the time before this CRIMINAL Compass Outfit came to bear the daily meal sheet was descriptive for each meal, and very tempting – and Fun – for patients and their families and friends to help complete. We exaggerate Not. The Compass printout for patients is APPALLING.

SO ANGRY

—

Related Posts and Comments:
8.4.16 Worsted
23.12.15 SDHB underfunded, no bandage
3.11.15 SDHB will ‘takeaway’ more than freshly cooked meals…
30.10.15 Dunedin Hospital #despair
17.6.15 Southern District Health Board sacked !!!
9.6.15 Southern District Health Board
16.4.15 Talk of replacing SDHB with commissioner
21.8.14 Dirty pool? #SDHB #University
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
5.12.13 Swann case: ODHB/SDHB and friends

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

SDHB underfunded, no bandage

Review of the population based funding formula completed
Ministry of Health news article
22 December 2015
A five yearly review of the population based funding formula (PBFF) for district health boards (DHBs) has been completed and will be incorporated into DHB’s 2016/17 Funding Advice.
The funding formula is a technical tool used to help equitably distribute the bulk of district health board funding according to the needs of each DHB’s population. The formula takes into account the number of people who live in each DHB catchment, their age, socio-economic status, ethnicity, and sex. It also has mechanisms to compensate DHBs who service rural communities and areas of high deprivation.
The funding covers a range of health services including primary care, hospital and community care, health of older people, and mental health.
The review recommended no structural changes to the overall model but proposed several changes, including to the rural adjuster to better reflect DHB population and geography.
In 2015/16 the PBFF distributed a total of $11.4 billion to DHBs. DHBs will not receive less funding as a result of the review.
Read more

█ Population-based funding formula Link

—

The embattled board – whose members were dismissed this year over a persistent deficit – will not get any extra cash (apart from deficit support) until the changes take effect next July.

### ODT Online Wed, 23 Dec 2015
Review helps SDHB a little
By Eileen Goodwin
A review of the health funding model has revealed what many long suspected – the Southern District Health Board is not receiving its fair share of health dollars. A Cabinet paper on the Ministry of Health review was released yesterday. […] The formula is essentially a head count with adjustments for demographics, deprivation, and other factors.
Read more

****

All up, 561 employees received more than $100,000, compared with 521 last year – 413 were in medical or dental roles.

### ODT Online Tue, 22 Dec 2015
Doubling of DHB staff on $400,000+
By Eileen Goodwin
The number of Southern District Health Board staff earning over $400,000 more than doubled in the last financial year, the board’s annual report shows. The 2014-15 report shows 13 staff received more than $400,000, compared with six the previous year. Chief executive Carole Heatly has been overtaken in the pay stakes by two employees earning $520,000-$530,000.
Read more

—

The numbers: (via ODT)
561 staff earning $100,000 or more
13 staff earning more than $400,000
2 staff earning $520,000 to $530,000
10.7 executive management staff earning almost $2.8 million
$357,000 board members’ fees

Source: Southern District Health Board annual report

—

Related Posts and Comments:
3.11.15 SDHB will ‘takeaway’ more than freshly cooked meals and a head chef
30.11.15 Dunedin Hospital #despair
17.6.15 Southern District Health Board sacked !!!
9.6.15 Southern District Health Board
16.4.15 Talk of replacing Southern District Health Board with commissioner
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
25.2.15 South Link Health, hmm that name….
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital
14.1.14 DCC: Hospital area parking changes #cyclelanes
5.12.13 Swann case: ODHB/SDHB and friends
10.11.10 Neurosurgery STAYS @Dunedin
6.8.10 SERIOUSLY

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: clipartlord.com – hospital2

SDHB will ‘takeaway’ more than freshly cooked meals and a head chef

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00, 3 Nov 2015
Southern District Health Board commissioner Kathy Grant to reveal “work plan”
By Evan Harding
The woman charged with turning around the fortunes of the cash-strapped Southern District Health Board will reveal her master plan on Tuesday [today]. Health commissioner Kathy Grant and her team will reveal details of their “work plan” to staff of the Southern District Health Board at meetings in Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown.
Read more

****

Document released to staff fails to state how many jobs will go, redundancy details, and the logistics of the new food system.

### ODT Online Mon, 2 Nov 2015
More hospital meal reheating tipped
By Eileen Goodwin
Dunedin Hospital’s cooks will focus on food “regeneration” – rather than cooking fresh meals for patients – after their job numbers are cut, according to a proposal Compass Group tried to keep under wraps. The multinational took over Southern District Health Board kitchens last month, and has started the process of cutting jobs to prepare for introducing its own food system. This will include trucking meals from Auckland to the South.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Stuff.co.nz – Kathy Grant, commissioner (detail)

DCC: Know your council ‘chair-leaders’ #pillowtalk

It’s with some fascination if not repulsion that Whatiffers can observe bullying by standing committee chairmen continuing unabated on the mayor’s watch.

Cr Thomson’s historical on camera stunts of addressing or referring to Cr Vandervis as “my good friend” are, how shall I say, unchaste and deceptive in the context of what follows below.

Two emails received tonight.

—

Received from Lee Vandervis
Wed, 16 Sep 2015 at 9:26 p.m.

█ Message: Differing Councillor views that may be of interest.
Cheers, Lee

—

—— Forwarded Message
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 22:41:19 +1200
To: Richard Thomson, Grace Ockwell, Sue Bidrose, Sandy Graham
Cc: Dave Cull, Kate Wilson, Chris Staynes, Jinty MacTavish, David Benson-Pope, Hilary Calvert, Aaron Hawkins, Mike Lord, Andrew Whiley, John Bezett, Doug Hall, Neville Peat, Andrew Noone, Ruth Stokes
Conversation: OIA Request
Subject: Re: OIA Request

Actually Richard, the Lamborghini has become symbolic of many other very visible excesses, but let us stick to Council issues.

For many years I used to make all the information I had available in very candid discussions with staff, who often then failed to investigate appropriately. Citifleet is a prime example, and this and other examples has taught me that a publicly funded organisation is poorly motivated to investigate itself.
Without my LGOIMA requests the incredibly belated Citifleet ‘investigation’ might never have happened, as it did not happen for over a decade before. Have you counted the cost of that multimillion dollar fraud as a percentage of the cost of processing my LGOIMA requests?
Do you not realise that most of my LGOIMA request arise from questions and allegations from members of the public that I represent?

Even when an internal investigation does prove that for instance over quarter of a million of public funds was paid to a contractor to clear mudtanks and none were cleared, nothing appropriate seems to happen at the DCC without publicity. Hence my now having to get the public involved when things are not sorted internally.
When you claim that needing information “of how the information relates to possible wrong doing” is necessary to get information, this is absurd. It is much easier to simply search ‘Stihl chainsaws’ and forward what DCC files information appears. Similarly a vehicle registration number. Just search the registration number and forward the files – easy, quick, no thinking required, little time wasted considering whether ‘particular staff have been involved in possible wrong doing’ etc.

Why is it that our staff can have all this information, but not want to share it with us the supposed decision makers when we request it?
Answer – information is power – and bureaucracies generally do not want to share it, especially with supposed decision makers.

Don’t you dare suggest that I do not give a toss, as you have no way of knowing the state of my mind or the work that I do, and don’t you dare suggest that my approach has failed to identify fraudulent behaviour, as you similarly do not know what has gone into, for instance, Citifleet, Jacks Point/Luggate, mudtanks, Noble, Town Hall redevelopment, or the almost complete turnover of senior managers at the DCC in the last few years.

I will continue to carry on in the manner I believe to be appropriate, and I do not seek any advice on my manner from of you.

Regards,
Cr. Vandervis

———————————

On 15/09/15 9:48 pm, “Richard Thomson” wrote:

Actually Lee my concern is quite the opposite. If there is fraud taking place I want to see it caught. That is why in the Otago DHB when someone came to me with an anonymous tip off and no evidence to back it I initiated a full investigation within half an hour. And I know what some of the consequences are of taking action. They include having to have endless questioning of your integrity/intelligence/ etc by people such as yourself and your fellow travellers on the likes of What If. You have no idea how terribly amusing it is to regularly be accused, because you did the right thing, of “failing to notice the Lamborghini in the carpark”. Never mind that I never had a carpark so didn’t go in the carpark building, or that the fabled Lamborgini was only owned for a few days. Or indeed, had I gone in the carpark building for a random look around and spotted a Lamborghini I would probably have assumed it belonged to a surgeon anyway. So bearing that personal history in mind here is what really pisses me off.

When you make accusations but when virtually begged to make the information available to the CEO so it can be investigated you respond that the “only way you will be making the information available will be through the pages of the ODT”. As you did at the Audit Committee meeting.

When you put in OIA requests and refuse to give any indication of how the information relates to possible wrong doing. Lets think chain saws here. So in the end the only way the OIA can be responded to is to make general inquiries all over the place thereby pretty much ensuring that if there has been dishonesty the person involved will have plenty of time to bury any evidence.

When you seek “all documentation” about a motor vehicle without giving a toss whether the inquiries around that might harm any investigation if there has been wrong doing because the people responding to the request will have no idea if they are going to tip off unknowingly a suspect.

It ought to be of some concern to you by now that your methods and approach have failed to catch any fraudulent behaviour but that the methods of Mr McKenzie that you so disparage have caught a number. Perhaps the fact that people do come to you with info might actually result in people being caught if you worked with people instead of carrying on in the manner you do.

R

[contacts deleted]

———————————

From: Lee Vandervis
To: Richard Thomson; Grace Ockwell; Sue Bidrose; Sandy Graham
Cc: Dave Cull; Kate Wilson; Chris Staynes; Jinty MacTavish; David Benson-Pope; Hilary Calvert; Aaron Hawkins; Mike Lord; Andrew Whiley; John Bezett; Doug Hall; Neville Peat; Andrew Noone
Sent: Tuesday, 15 September 2015 8:59 PM
Subject: Re: OIA Request

Re: OIA Request

I note Richard, that you and some others are quite happy to get on with running a city without knowing who is stealing what or how much things cost to run the city.
My regular voting against Council spending motions often arises because there is simply not enough information made available to justify voting for.
If staff reports provided adequate relevant information, and if rate-paid reports like the $300,000 Deloitte investigation information were made available to us who need to make related decisions, none of this tedious LGOIMA process would be necessary. It is a shame that I have to go to so much effort just get basic information, and that so few others can be bothered.

Cr. Vandervis

———————————

On 15/09/15 5:27 pm, “Richard Thomson” wrote:

Hi,

Could I please file an official information act request asking what the cost to Council has been of answering Cr Vandervis’s official information act requests over the last year.

on second thoughts, please don’t. I’d prefer you got on with running a city..

R

[contacts deleted]

—— End of Forwarded Message

—

Received from Lee Vandervis
Wed, 16 Sep 2015 at 9:27 p.m.

█ Message: And this…

—

—— Forwarded Message
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 21:50:07 +1200
To: David Benson-Pope, Richard Thomson, Grace Ockwell, Sue Bidrose, Sandy Graham
Cc: Dave Cull, Kate Wilson, Chris Staynes, Jinty MacTavish, Hilary Calvert, Aaron Hawkins, Mike Lord, Andrew Whiley, John Bezett, Doug Hall, Neville Peat, Andrew Noone
Conversation: OIA Request
Subject: Re: OIA Request

You might well have stopped for a moment David, to consider the cost of not making LGOIMA requests, or of the enormous savings to ratepayers had LGOIMA requests been honestly and promptly complied with as required by the LGOIMA Act.
It has been recently proven that ex CEO Harland misled Councillors making LGOIMA requests to find out what Farry and Co were up to with Stadium planning/funding, by falsely claiming that the Carisbrook Stadium Trust were not subject to LGOIMA information disclosure requirements. Ex-CEO Harland did this despite having two legal opinions, one local and one ex Wellington, saying that the CST were absolutely subject to LGOIMA information requests. Harland’s deceptions have only come to light as a result of many subsequent LGOIMA requests.
Had Harland processed LGOIMA requests as legally required during his tenure it would highly likely have saved ratepayers many millions in a variety of areas, if not hundreds of millions wasted on our Stadium liability.
If all my 2011 LGOIMA requests for Citifleet information, including all credit card information had been made available as requested under LGOIMA, think how many subsequently stolen vehicles would have been saved and perhaps even the life of a bent manager. Put a price on that David and make sure to request the full cost thereof.
The horrendous cost of not having required relevant information on which to make decisions is the reason we have LGOIMA.
In my opinion, not using the LGOIMA process suggests that you are not doing your job as an elected representative.

Regards,
Cr. Lee Vandervis

———————————

On 15/09/15 6:04 pm, “David Benson-Pope” wrote:

While I agree with the sentiment … If he won’t I wil

This is therefore a request for full details of all lgoima requests made to the dcc by any councillor in the current triennium and the full cost thereof
Yours etc
David Benson-Pope
Sent from my Windows Phone

———————————

From: Richard Thomson
Sent: 15/09/2015 5:27 p.m.
To: Grace Ockwell; Sue Bidrose; Sandy Graham
Cc: Dave Cull; Kate Wilson; Chris Staynes; Lee Vandervis; Jinty MacTavish; David Benson-Pope; Hilary Calvert; Aaron Hawkins; Mike Lord; Andrew Whiley; John Bezett; Doug Hall; Neville Peat; Andrew Noone
Subject: OIA Request

Hi,

Could I please file an official information act request asking what the cost to Council has been of answering Cr Vandervis’s official information act requests over the last year.

on second thoughts, please don’t. I’d prefer you got on with running a city.

R

[contacts deleted]

—— End of Forwarded Message

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: toonpool.com – Cat Whisperer by Goodwyn (tweaked by whatifdunedin)

Southern District Health Board sacked !!!

█ Kathy Grant, a legal consultant at Gallaway Cook Allan in Dunedin, will take up the role of Commissioner tomorrow.

“Southern is forecasting a final deficit of $27 million for the current financial year. That figure has effectively doubled in the last six months.”
–Jonathan Coleman, Minister of Health

### ODT Online Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Southern health board sacked
Dunedin legal consultant Kathy Grant has been appointed the Commissioner of the troubled Southern District Health Board which has been sacked today.
Her deputies will be board member Richard Thomson, who was sacked as Otago District Health Board chairman in 2009, and Dunedin City Holdings chairman Graham Crombie.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman announced this morning he had written to the SDHB sacking all members of the board and replacing it with a commissioner. Read more

● Perhaps unfortunate that Mr Thomson is in the equation – but some form of lowlife continuous knowledge possible. As for Mr Crombie – additional doubts there.

—

Related Posts and Comments:
9.6.15 Southern District Health Board
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
16.4.15 Talk of replacing Southern District Health Board with commissioner

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: stuff.co.nz – Kathy Grant

Southern District Health Board

A major development in the wings for the SDHB. Not before time! And while individual board members may feel aggrieved at their potential dumping, after what they may think has been all solid work and duty, the evidence is the health board has been operating with a screaming history of multimillion-dollar losses; obvious limitations for effect of timely interventions for many commonly experienced medical conditions; and within an array of building and facility conditions that, frankly, are a severe indictment on central government spending priorities and funding methods for Health.

Replacing the health board with a commissioner is both necessary and welcome, if not callously overdue. The make-do and rationed aspects of the health board regime, including recent losses of funding or subsidy to local health support services, are telling not only for urban areas and hospitals, but significantly debilitating for rural health, mental health, rest homes and dementia units, and other providers of crucial health services across the large territory that is Southern Health.

—

### ODT Online Tue, 9 June 2015
Board may be sacked
The Southern District Health Board may be given its marching orders and a commissioner installed to sort out its problems. The board has until Thursday to respond to Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman’s proposal to consider appointing a commissioner under the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act, it was revealed yesterday.
Read more

—

Related Post and Comments:
17.6.15 Southern District Health Board sacked !!!
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
16.4.15 Talk of replacing Southern District Health Board with commissioner

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Talk of replacing Southern District Health Board with commissioner

See tomorrow’s Otago Daily Times for more on SDHB.

—

Link received Thu, 16 Apr 2015 at 9:40 p.m.

█ Message: Snap!! – it’s also happening in Dunedin

### whaleoil.co.nz March 27, 2015 at 1:30pm
The waning of Key’s National: the arrogance and irony
By Cameron Slater
The life cycle of any political party leader is clearly understood. What we are seeing now, the vulnerable John Key, the floundering of previously successful people that surround him, and people previously loyal turning their backs on him didn’t just happen in the last four weeks. The by-election simply has made it more visible in a shorter period of time.
Read more

When John Key is out there, he only sees crackpots and sycophants. He’s had so much of it, he can’t even recognise when someone turns up with something genuine and important. The same for his MPs. –Slater

Then there was MAYOR DAVE.

—

Related Posts and Comments:
17.6.15 Southern District Health Board sacked !!!
9.6.15 Southern District Health Board
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dirty pool? #SDHB #University

Dunedin Hospital’s physiotherapy pool has some bent admirers.

GUESS WHO ??

DCC Webmap – subject site

Last week What if? Dunedin received information that the pool’s threatened closure is far from what it seems. A long-term plan has been sighted, in which either the hospital (SDHB) or the University of Otago is shown to be eyeing up the pool building. Note —the pool and a large empty space used for parking immediately adjacent to the University’s student hostel property (at 490 Cumberland Street) are marked for “development”.

It is said the $1 million quoted for the pool’s building upgrade looks like ‘a bogeyman conjured up to make the kids settle down to sleep and stop asking awkward questions’.

—

DCC Rates information (click to enlarge):

—

Related Posts and Comments:
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Tertiary larks squeeze DCC ratepayers for $30,000

“The two [Auckland] firms had been hired to prepare concept plans and options for projects to improve the pedestrian and cycling environment in and around the tertiary campuses. […] This will enable projects to be ‘picked off’ by the various institutions together or individually.” –Susan Lilley, DCC (via ODT)

● Why are DCC, university and polytechnic not buying LOCAL?
● (Student Ghetto) The streets are PUBLIC, aren’t they? Or are they.
● University and polytechnic not paying enough rates?!
● Heaps of other questions?!

Kate Wilson said Chow Hill Architects and Flow Transportation were hired to come up with a plan, at a cost of $88,000, with the city council paying $30,000, and the rest split between Otago Polytechnic and the University of Otago. (ODT)

### ODT Online Thu, 7 Aug 2014
Auckland firms work on tertiary streetscape
By Vaughan Elder
Two Auckland firms have been hired to investigate options for a revamp of Dunedin’s tertiary precinct, which could include making some areas pedestrian only. The work on the streetscape in the tertiary precinct is being overseen by the “tertiary precinct planning group”, which includes representatives from the Dunedin City Council, Otago Polytechnic, University of Otago, Otago Regional Council, Otago Museum and Southern District Health Board.
Read more

—

Related Posts and Comments:
5.8.14 DCC staff-led CBD projects that impact ratepayers…
4.8.14 Cr Wilson’s integrity ‘in tatters’
1.8.14 DCC: Sorting THE MESS
28.7.14 DCC: Residents’ Opinion Survey 2014
5.7.14 DCC’s debt level — who do you believe?
23.6.14 DCC Annual Plan 2014/15 + Rugby and Rates
2.6.14 DCC: Slip in service levels, why?!
22.5.14 DCC Transportation Planning —ANOTHER consultation disaster

1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
19.8.13 Cull on senility (firing up graduates)
31.5.13 University of Otago development plans
25.3.13 University of Otago: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder…
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
20.5.10 Hahaha if you’re still thinking Campus Master Plans look…
17.5.10 Campus Master Plan

North Dunedin – Where Campus Watch are operating [otago.ac.nz]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Cr Kate by whatifdunedin