New Consumer Council provides additional community voice at Waitematā DHB

Thirteen everyday people had their first taste of life behind the scenes of New Zealand’s biggest DHB today.

All were welcomed to Waitematā DHB with a traditional Māori pōwhiri as members of the new Consumer Council.

They will meet at least seven times-a-year with CEO Dr Dale Bramley and Patient Experience Director David Price, providing input towards the design, planning and delivery of accessible, safe and high quality health care services.

Waitematā DHB recruited for the positions earlier this year – seeking a broad cross-section of candidates to represent the interests of its diverse community.

The Council is authorised to give advice and make recommendations to the CEO as well as any other DHB services or divisions that seek its input.
“We pride ourselves on being a patient and whānau-centric organisation,” Dr Bramley says. “That’s why we have followed a robust process to ensure our patients, families and whānau have even more of a say in the way their health services are delivered.

“One of the first jobs of this new Council will be to develop an effective process that ensures its activities and meeting outcomes are reported back to the people we all serve.

“The Consumer Council also has a quality improvement role to advise and encourage better, best and brilliant practice and innovation.”
The Council includes people with strong connections to the local Maori, Pacific, Asian, disability and youth communities. All members have experienced Waitematā DHB within the last two-to-three years – either as patients or family and whānau.

“I want to personally thank each of these people for making themselves available and look forward to working with them in the future,” Dr Bramley says.

Waitematā DHB is also closely involved with Waitakere Health Link – a West Auckland-based non-government organisation that connects local health services with consumers, distributing key information to all parties and collecting feedback that helps with ongoing developments and improvements.

About Waitematā DHB
Waitematā DHB serves the largest population of any district health board in New Zealand, currently standing at more than 630,000 people. We have a workforce of more than 7,500 staff spread across more than 80 sites, including North Shore Hospital and Waitakere Hospital. We are also the Northern Region provider of forensic psychiatry and child disability services, plus the metro Auckland provider of child community dental services and community alcohol and drug services.