Senior hospital staff have rushed to support Richard Thomson as a decision on his future looms.
His position of chairman of the Otago District Health Board came under threat last week when Health Minister Tony Ryall asked him to step down over the $16.9 million defrauding of the board and he refused.
Clinical leader in intensive care Mike Hunter said staff trust in Mr Ryall would be compromised if Mr Thomson was sacked, but he ruled out a mutiny.
Mr Hunter considered Mr Ryall's behaviour as "an act of bullying" and "not a good way to get co-operation out of medical staff".
If Mr Thomson was dismissed, he believed there would be a lot of "frustration and anger" among staff. Though unsure what action staff could take, he felt any direct action of use would be discussed among senior staff.
Mr Hunter believed it "defied natural justice" to punish Mr Thomson for the defrauding. He made his opinion clear in a letter to the Otago Daily Times on Wednesday.
Chief medical officer Richard Bunton had also publicly shown his support of Mr Thomson in an opinion piece in Monday's Otago Daily Times.
Personally, he hoped the minister would not remove Mr Thomson from his position of chairman. However, he believed the day-to-day running of the hospital would not be affected if he was dismissed.
His concern lay at the hospital's operational level, which he said would suffer if his long-term leadership was lost.
Five more senior staff members added their names to a letter to the paper in support of Mr Thomson on Thursday.
Among them was oncologist David Perez, who said their concern was "strategic direction would be lost, which would leave us significantly worse off".
He spoke specifically of work Mr Thomson carried out to align the Otago and Southland district health boards. He described the move as vital to the future of Otago's board.
If the initiative fell off the radar, it "would be a major step backwards". His personal opinion was, despite concerns about the fraud, Mr Thomson's balance sheet in terms of action had been "clearly positive".
After a discussion in committee at the health board meeting on Thursday, it was decided a letter would be sent to Mr Ryall on the subject of the dismissal.
