Over time, Parata considered that her workspace had become more consistent with that of a self-employed case-loading midwife.<\/p>\n
She began to practise and claim salary under the Primary Maternity Services Notice, which she was not entitled to do so.<\/p>\n
NPO began an audit after it found discrepancies in its financials, including a substantial underclaiming. Parata then admitted to the Midwifery Council what she had been doing. <\/p>\n
The Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) then began an investigation.<\/p>\n
It found Parata was responsible for making claims on behalf of NPO to Te Whatu Ora, which provides funding for the service. <\/p>\n
Parata herself was not to receive any of those funds directly but rather was paid a salary for the services rendered.<\/p>\n
For the period July 6, 2023, to December 6, 2023, there were claims made in Parata\u2019s name and paid to Parata as Provider, which amounted to $52,687.24.<\/p>\n
A spreadsheet provided by Te Whatu Ora to the PCC shows that there were 192 entries for that total, despite Parata not providing those services in her capacity as a self-employed caseloading LMC.<\/p>\n
Parata admitted the conduct had occurred since 2022 and that the total she had taken was $100,000.<\/p>\n
Parata told the tribunal that she was working excessive hours, in isolation, there was no system that allowed her to be relieved when working more than 12 hours at a time or for her to take sick leave or to attend tangihanga, and she was exposed to violence, unsafe buildings and unsuitable vehicles for her work.<\/p>\n
She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), daily episodes of extreme anxiety, chronic headaches, and chronic fatigue.<\/p>\n
Parata said that she had often supported hap\u016b m\u0101m\u0101 and wh\u0101nau from her own pocket and she offered to repay the money taken.<\/p>\n
Both NPO and Te Whatu Ora have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n
\u2018This was clearly a fantasy\u2019 – tribunal deputy chair<\/p>\n
Tribunal deputy chairperson Susan Hughes KC said there was \u201cno argument\u201d that Parata should not have acted as she did by diverting funds intended for NPO to her own account.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe explained that by saying that there was a threat that Te Puia Springs Hospital\u2019s maternity service was at risk of closure due to damage caused by the various adverse weather events experienced by the East Cape.<\/p>\n
Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal deputy chairperson Susan Hughes KC. Photo \/ Southland Times\/Stuff<\/p>\n
\u201cShe became convinced that she could develop a maternity service to serve the district using funds diverted. This was clearly a fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as being suspended from practice for a period of 12 months, she had a number of restrictions in place if she was to return to midwifery.<\/p>\n
This included that for a period of 24 months she will disclose to any employer, prospective employer or midwifery practice partner this decision and the conditions imposed, attend monthly supervision with a Midwifery Council-approved supervisor for the first year and provide a self-reflection report to the Midwifery Council every six months.<\/p>\n
And all claims made to Te Whatu Ora by Parata would need to be signed off by another registered midwife for a period of 12 months.<\/p>\n
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audit uncovered Parata\u2019s stealing Parata worked under NPO at Te Puia Springs Hospital in Gisborne from December 2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26977,13651,2562,236092,33959,30548,2837,3806,16843,2082,33960,14154,12811,33262,100600,111,43,139,69,2847,1523,59683,2744,2247,3769,55857,1354,379],"class_list":["post-466231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-banned","tag-cape","tag-claims","tag-corrina","tag-cyclone","tag-distress","tag-during","tag-east","tag-false","tag-for","tag-gabrielle","tag-give","tag-hero","tag-hour","tag-midwife","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-over","tag-parata","tag-pay","tag-pregnant","tag-supplies","tag-walked","tag-woman","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466231","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=466231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}