Claims have emerged that Southern District Health Board leaders were shouted at and bullied by officials in Wellington, and forced to undertake an accounting trick to make the books look better.
An anonymous letter says ''senior Ministry of Health officials'' are not being held to account for the board's financial failure, despite the fact they were closely involved in the situation.
Last week, the board was sacked and a commissioner team appointed in its place.
Purportedly written by a Ministry of Health staff member, dated June 3, the letter says the board's financial position continued to deteriorate despite increased oversight from the ministry.
''During this same period of time, these same officials have been banging tables and shouting and intimidating senior leaders in the Southern DHB.
''The denigrating comments made within the Ministry of Health/National Health Board has been nothing short of abusive ... Conversations by senior MOH/NHB officials about removing the board chair, CEO and a range of other Southern DHB staff is simply not OK and it seems that the best way for the ... senior figures to protect themselves is to see this DHB fail,'' the letter said.
The letter also claims the board, under the direction of the ministry, had to release millions of dollars in ''trust funds'' to make its 2013-14 deficit smaller to ''prevent the Government from being embarrassed''.
Board member turned deputy commissioner Richard Thomson told the Otago Daily Times the accounting claim was probably ''nonsense'', and the board did not have ''trust funds''.
Mr Thomson believed it possible the claim might pertain to an auditor-requested change in how research funding was treated, which was necessary to comply with standard accounting practice.
Former board member Dr Branko Sijnja was also sceptical, as the claim did not accord with his understanding of the funds at the board's disposal.
More generally, Dr Sijnja is upset he and the other board members are ''taking the rap'' for things outside the board's control.
Many of its costs were fixed, like nationally agreed employment contracts, over which the board had no say.
Dr Sijnja said the sacking had been the ''first time in my whole life I've been dismissed''.
Of bullying claims, Dr Sijnja did not know specifically, but ''forceful'' behaviour was not unknown in the sector.
He recalled a previous chairman talking about ''very angry phone calls from a minister at night''.
The letter was revealed at Parliament's health select committee on Wednesday by Labour health spokeswoman Annette King.
The Ministry of Health declined to comment, a spokesman saying it responded at the select committee when Director-general of Health Chai Chuah said bullying was not tolerated.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the minister would expect any ''issues around the culture'' to be investigated by Mr Chuah, if necessary.
Former board chairman Joe Butterfield could not be contacted.
Chief executive Carole Heatly's communications staff were organising a statement, but it had not been provided by deadline.
