The Roster Te Rārangi: Edition 8

Straight outta New Lynn
Greg Clarke moves out of “westie” general practice and into the business advisory industry next month. Chartered accountant Mr Clarke becomes chief operating officer at Medsector Advisors (formerly Masagen), after seven years as chief executive at Health New Lynn in west Auckland. He is a former chief operating officer of private hospital company Wakefield Health (now Acurity). Medsector Advisors works with health organisations on business and practice management, human relations, governance, strategy, agreements, procurement and marketing.

An influencer in rural health
Rural health and medical education expert Sarah Strasser was honoured last year with Member of the Order of Australia. UK-trained Professor Strasser, newly arrived at the University of Waikato as dean of the Huataki Waiora School of Health, has held senior roles in Canadian as well as Australian health. She carried out pivotal work on rural health workforce development in Australia. Among past employers are Monash, Flinders and Queensland Universities; the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Training Program; and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. She leads a WHO review on retaining health professionals in rural and remote areas.

Whānau ora in the south
Achieving positive social outcomes for whānau is the priority for the South Island whānau ora commissioning agency, Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu. The agency has just named a former Nelson Marlborough DHB senior manager, Rebecca Mason, as director. Ms Mason runs her own firm, Meihana Consulting, in Nelson. She is of Ngati Kuia, serves as kaitiaki of the iwi’s runanga, and is a chartered accountant. Ms Mason has worked in senior roles for pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

Elder statesman
Christchurch engineer, business leader and company director Don Elder is turning his mind to health-system improvement. Dr Elder is the new independent chair of the Alliance Leadership Team overseeing the Canterbury health system’s integration and clinically led service development and improvement. Dr Elder, a former chief executive of Solid Energy, is a director of Lyttelton Port Company, Alpine Energy Group and Canterbury Seismic, and chair of the Family Help Trust. He replaces Sir John Hansen, now chair of Canterbury DHB.

All over general practice
Liz Stockley has taken a seat at the board table of bpacnz. A provider of best-practice evidence and continuing professional development to health practitioners, it is owned by primary health organisations ProCare Health and Pegasus Health; GP company South Link Health; General Practice New Zealand, where Ms Stockley is chief executive; the University of Otago; and the Royal NZ College of General Practitioners. Ms Stockley is also a director of the board of GPNZ-owned health IT provider Patients First. She trained in library and information management and has an MBA.

New in COVID response team
At the Ministry of Health, Sue Gordon has stepped into the shoes of Keriana Brooking, to become deputy chief executive of the COVID-19 health system response. Mrs Brooking joins Hawke’s Bay DHB as chief executive in September. Ms Gordon, who trained as a lawyer, has years of senior management experience, including at the then Ministry of Economic Development and Microsoft. Celia Wellington, formerly of ESR, is acting in Ms Gordon’s former job, deputy director-general, corporate services.

Virtual health link-up
New Zealand Health IT has a special interest group with a focus on virtual health, and Samuel Wong has been named chair. Mr Wong is vice president of product innovations at Vensa, provider of technologies to primary care such as TXT2Remind and the vensa.com patients’ platform. He has held analytics roles with St John and ProCare Health, including setting up national virtual and telehealth services. He co-founded and managed mobile health IT start-up Auximedic. As chair of the Virtual Health Industry Group, Mr Wong fosters collaboration across IT companies, DHBs, PHOs, the Ministry of Health and advisory bodies.

Drama in high places
Chris Hipkins’ arrival as health minister this month was the year’s most dramatic new appointment in the sector, and followed the resignation of his Labour colleague David Clark. Then came another high-profile Labourite, Helen Clark, former three-term prime minister, named to co-chair the WHO-initiated Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Across the house
Whangarei MP and GP Shane Reti moved up the rankings in a National Party line-up, going from 17 to 13 following a reshuffle by new National Party leader Todd Muller in the wake of former deputy leader Paula Bennett’s announcement she will retire prior to the election. Dr Reti picks up the associate drug reform role.

More moves
Maori leader Riki Nia Nia was accorded a powhiri when taking up a new role at Waikato DHB (more to come on this); experienced midwives Ngarangi Pritchard, of Wellington, and Jude Cottrell, of Auckland, were appointed to the Midwifery Council; and AIA representative Len Elikhis went from director to chair of the board of insurer body the Health Funds Association.

The Popcorn Panels - Chatting about the Simpson report
Grab some popcorn, hit the couch; The Health Media is launching a new way to talk about key issues in health – The Popcorn Panels. And the first topic up for discussion is the recently delivered Health and Disability System Review panel report, aka the Simpson report. Four panels are planned covering PHOs, Māori health commissioning, the future of general practice and the creation of mega-DHBs and the new entity Health NZ. The first panel - on PHOs - is tomorrow night. It is free to attend, simply register here.

Getting better connected
Why not spread this link to your mates and contacts in the health and wellbeing sector so they can consider subscribing to The Roster Te Rarangi? Hopefully, you’ll see it as one easy step in the direction everyone says they want go – towards a well-connected health and disability system. Thank you to all who help by providing info for this email newsletter. Free and fortnightly, that’s your Roster! All the best.

– Virginia McMillan, Editor
Phone 021 914 699, email vmcmillan@nzdoctor.co.nz