worries for their future health<\/a> after its closure, with one saying there is \u201cnothing like it in New Zealand\u201d.<\/p>\nWilson told the Rotorua Daily Post he lodged a complaint about Health NZ to the Commerce Commission on November 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, QE Health was issued a new contract providing a 3% increase [in funding] just three days before the existing contract expired, and was advised that unless it was signed immediately, payment would not be made the following month.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the complaint, sighted by the Rotorua Daily Post, Wilson said the contract, which expired on June 28, was worth more than $300,000 per month.<\/p>\n
It said he accepted the 3% increase after speaking with directors.<\/p>\n
Without the contract, he would have \u201cneeded to close the doors as I could not pay the payroll\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had eight years of 2% increases and the 3% \u2018offered\u2019 this year is not enough to sustain the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson said the commission responded to his complaint on December 18, advising him it would not investigate his concern.<\/p>\n
He said this was \u201cquite disappointing\u201d because in his view it seemed like \u201ca clear case of monopoly bullying\u201d and meant the business was in liquidation.<\/p>\n
Wilson said QE Health was not considering taking private action or establishing a breach of the Commerce Act 1986 through the courts.<\/p>\n
Commission \u2018unclear\u2019 on how conduct breached Commerce Act <\/p>\n
In a statement, Commerce Commission competition, fair trading, and credit general manager Vanessa Horne said the commission carefully assessed Wilson\u2019s concern and information.<\/p>\n
While the commission could not investigate every concern, each one was logged and assessed, she said.<\/p>\n
Horne said it considered several factors relating to its enforcement criteria – the extent of detriment, seriousness of conduct, and public interest. <\/p>\n
It was also guided by its enforcement priorities when determining whether to take a concern further.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter completing an assessment of this concern, the commission determined it was unclear how the conduct breached the Commerce Act. <\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, the commission has opted not to take further action at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horne said the business\u2019 liquidation factored into its decision.<\/p>\n
Health NZ refutes claims <\/p>\n
Health NZ refuted Wilson\u2019s claims and reiterated its previous statement by its Midland Te Manawa Taki regional planning, funding and outcomes director Nicola Ehau.<\/p>\n
Ehau said Health NZ had been working with QE Health\u2019s previous leadership to address \u201cservice sizing and the alignment of existing agreements\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth New Zealand understands that the decision to place QE Health into liquidation was not based on whether service contracts would transfer. <\/p>\n
\u201cMatters relating to the closure remain under the liquidator\u2019s control, and it would not be appropriate to comment further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funding increases for community services were set nationally and, since Health NZ was formed, had been \u201capplied consistently across all non-government organisations\u201d, Ehau said.<\/p>\n
Megan Wilson<\/a> is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QE Health offered clinical services, including rheumatology, physiotherapy, psychology, orthotics, dietetics, and occupational therapy. Patients expressed worries for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,3620,138,1550,7520,2371,12797,62240,27505,134,676,12618,1362,17073,111,139,69,89335,1327,38715,61,5510],"class_list":["post-205534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-bullying","tag-business","tag-centre","tag-commerce","tag-commission","tag-complaint","tag-declined","tag-declines","tag-health","tag-investigate","tag-liquidated","tag-made","tag-monopoly","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-qe","tag-rotorua","tag-rotoruas","tag-to","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}