Following our call in Saturday's Waikato Times for the Waikato DHB Chair, Bob Simcock, to follow his disgraced Cheif Executive and resign for the lack of oversight and expense scandal, we've been bombarded with feedback from our members and supporters in the Waikato region on the issue.

David Farrar has blogged on the issue here:

So the full story is the DHB hired [CEO, Nigel Murray] despite warnings, his former hospital was poorly run, he didn’t show up at conferences he had been paid to attend overseas, he didn’t disclose his expenses, then finally they turned out to be $108,000 and the local GPs say they can’t work with him.

So how did this carry on for three years? There needs to be accountability from the DHB.

One of our supporters asked us to launch a petition, calling for some accountability.  We say Mr Simcock should have had the systems in place to prevent Mr Murray's expense claims getting out of control, especially given the clear warnings that came before Mr Murrary was hired.  The blame for it taking so long to detect rests squarely at the feet of the DHB and its Chair.