The Ministry of Health says it had no deliberate intention to mislead or misinform anyone when it incorrectly advised the Otago Daily Times last week it had not received any feedback on the make-up of the panel to review neurosurgery services.
An email had been missed during a check on correspondence, a spokeswoman said.
Email records released to the ODT by the Southern District Health Board under the Official Information Act show that the ministry and the National Health Board were advised of a concern almost a week before intensive care specialist Mike Hunter spoke out last Thursday.
The three-person panel was appointed by former director-general of health Stephen McKernan to advise him on the issue, after the South Island district health boards could not agree on the configuration of a regional neurosurgery service and passed the dispute to him.
ODT questions last week asked whether there had been any feedback, positive or negative, about the make-up of the panel: Auckland specialist Anne Kolbe, Adelaide neurosurgeon Glenn McCulloch and consumer advocate David Russell.
The July 27 ministry response said no feedback had been received or sought.
"However, all panel members are highly regarded in their respective fields."
However, the information released to the ODT shows that on July 23, Southern chief executive Brian Rousseau had forwarded an email from his surgery service manager, Helen Williams, to Mr McKernan and National Health Board director Chai Chuah.
In her email to Mr Rousseau, sent on July 22 and copied to retired neurosurgeon Sam Bishara (now overseas), Mrs Williams said she and Prof Bishara had concerns Mr McCulloch had already made his decision on the future of the Dunedin unit.
"He has in past expressed his views on the Dunedin unit, stating it should not continue."
He had most recently expressed this to Prof Bishara at the neurosurgical conference in Alice Springs last September, she wrote.
Mr Chuah replied on July 24, he would pass this on to Mrs Kolbe.
The same concern was also raised by Mr Hunter in his email sent to Mr McKernan on July 29.
The email trail shows Mr McKernan responded to both Mr Rousseau and Mr Hunter by letter on the issue on that day.
As the ODT reported last Saturday, Mr McKernan said Mr McCulloch's recollection of his conversation with Prof Bishara was in response to a question on the future viability of the Dunedin unit as a "stand-alone" training unit.
His observation of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' training guidelines was accurate and simply reflected what South Island district health board chief executives had already recognised; that there should be one South Island neurosurgery service "and any unit in Dunedin should be part of a South Island service".
A ministry spokeswoman, in an email statement, this week said unfortunately the email from Mr Rousseau raising the concern was missed when staff checked on the content of correspondence received last week and responded to the ODT.
Messrs Chuah and McKernan received hundreds of emails every day.
While those relating to the neurosurgery review were being forwarded to a central point for logging before being summarised and passed on to the panel, "the content of Mr Rousseau's email was overlooked".
The spokeswoman said the matter raised in the email had been addressed and the "public can have confidence the panel does not have a predetermined outcome for the process they are about to embark on".
