Role Call - People on the move and gaining recognition in the health sector

Teresea Olsen, general manager of health and social services at Kōkiri Marae at Seaview near Petone, was named Wellingtonian of the Year earlier this month. “Welly” awards creator and sponsor The Dominion Post reports that Mrs Olsen’s supreme award came after a win in the community service category.

Mrs Olsen helped run Wainuiomata Marae as a vaccination centre, and ran the “Delta bus”, which drove into the region’s lowest-vaccinated area, Stokes Valley, and vaccinated 99 people on its first day, the newspaper reports.

Wellington regional PHO Tū Ora Compass Health has appointed Debbie Chin as chair, and Island Bay Medical Centre GP-owner and long-serving Tū Ora board member Richard Medlicott as deputy chair. Ms Chin is the independent chair of Waikato DHB’s finance, audit and risk committee.

She served as Crown monitor to the Capital & Coast DHB board prior to being the DHB’s chief executive from 2013 to 2018. She formerly led Standards New Zealand. At Tū Ora Compass Health, Ms Chin replaces Larry Jordan.

Auckland PHO has appointed Ashley Hulme as its rātonga kaiwhakahaere chief operations officer. Until recently practice manager at Hobsonville Family Doctors in west Auckland, Mr Hulme has held management roles in primary care since 2014, when he joined the then Nirvana Health Group, now Tāmaki Health. He is a Foundation Standard assessor for the RNZCGP. Mr Hulme, who comes from a medical family, has been quality improvement lead for the Safety in Practice programme, and played a part in over a dozen quality improvement initiatives to more than 45,000 patients.

New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service founder and public health medicine specialist Liz Craig is the new parliamentary private secretary for health, working alongside ministers with health-related portfolios. Dr Craig, a Labour list MP, was a member of the health select committee between November 2017 and May this year, and for the past 18 months was chair. She also serves on the pae ora legislation committee. The new chair of the health select committee is Labour’s MP for Palmerston North, Tangi Utikere.

Shelley Campbell starts in July as chief executive of Wise Group. This network’s organisations are involved in health and wellbeing, housing support, employment and navigation, education and training, workforce development and research. Current leaders Julie Nelson and Jacqui Graham are stepping down but will hold governance roles.

Ms Campbell joins from the Cancer Society’s Waikato Bay of Plenty Division, where she is chief executive. She has also led The Sir Peter Blake Trust and the former PHO, Waikato Primary Health.

Auckland City Hospital pain medicine and anaesthesia specialist Kieran Davis is the new dean of the Australasian Faculty of Pain Medicine, part of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. UK and New Zealand-trained Dr Davis has taken the reins from Australian physician and academic Mick Vagg.

Dr Davis is a member of the faculty’s New Zealand National Committee.

In a media release, he says the faculty has been working with the Ministry of Health and others to design a model of pain care unique to New Zealand.