COLLECTIONS: System Fix - the podcast for health reform junkies

It's a cracker episode with panellists and health policy experts Gabrielle Baker and Tim Tenbensel joining me, Barbara Fountain, to catch up on the latest in health reforms. The panel convened in the middle of a week that started with the Parliamentary debate on the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora. You’ll hear about:

• The impact of the closure of Te Aka Whai Ora on Māori patients and providers and the wider reforms.
• The resulting brake on the rollout of localities, the increased role for iwi Māori partnership boards and where all this leaves the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee.
• Tim railing against the use of urgency in Parliament (elective dictatorship) and the misnomer that is the health postcode lottery.
• The health status report getting a plug, even if just as a useful resource tool.
• Gabrielle updating us on progress on the second stage of the Wai2575 claim concerning tāngata whaikaha Māori, Māori with lived experience of disability.

All this and more.

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The year 2023 is quickly becoming a distant memory as the great Kiwi summer does an excellent job of wiping the neural slate clean. I took the opportunity of an unexpected convalescence, to refresh my memory by looking back at the editorials I wrote in 2023. The heart of New Zealand Doctor Rata Aoteraroa is in primary care and you’ll hear that theme loud and strong in this episode of System Fix. I’m not promising a comprehensive look at the year - more of a fly by. You can always fast forward when 2023 gets too much. So, settle in and drift back to early 2023 when Jacinda Ardern was prime minister, Andrew Little was health minister and Rob Campbell was chair of Te Whatu Ora.

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Abbe Anderson is Te Whatu Ora national director commissioning. The buck stops with her for any items relating to funding and planning in primary care and community health. System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain recently caught up with Abbe via Zoom. They chatted about her passion to see a reform built on knowing what people want of their health system, progress with sector restructuring, why that capitation offer won't go past 5 per cent, the growth of localities, and the weight of expectation, aka, what keeps Abbe awake at night. Thanks for listening.

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Five weeks after he was sacked as chair of the board of Te Whatu Ora, Rob Campbell reflected on what was going so wrong with the health reforms and what might be done to make it right. He was speaking to a meeting of the Fabian Society in Wellington. System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain says that speech and Mr Campbell’s subsequent comments deserve more air time and replays it as part of this podcast episode. Mr Campbell provides the ultimate insider’s view of the reform process – with fresh eyes on health he was leading the new structure at the heart of the reform, that is, until he was dismissed by health minister Ayesha Verrall for breaching public service etiquette and commenting on political matters outside his brief role

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Iwi Māori partnership boards are a crucial element of the new health sector landscape. The boards are the Treaty partners in a system which has as a key priority achieving equity in health outcomes for Māori. System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain is joined by regular panelist Gabrielle Baker and guest Simon Royal to take a look at the challenges facing these new boards

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System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain provides a quick rundown of events around the 1 July launch of New Zealand's new central health entities - Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand and Te Aka Whai Ora - Māori Health Authority, and then makes way for senior journalist Martin Johnston's interview with Te Whatu Ora board chair Rob Campbell, who admits he was quite shocked when he realised quite how dysfunctional the health system was

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As the 1 July deadline looms, System Fix host Barbara Fountain is joined by regular panelists independent health policy consultant Gabrielle Baker and Auckland University health policy researcher Tim Tenbensel, for a whistlestop tour of the latest developments in the roll out of the health reforms

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System Fix host Barbara Fountain is joined by New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa senior journalist Martin Johnston in conversation with Martin Hefford of the interim Health New Zealand, on the afternoon of 21 April, the day health minister Andrew Little announced the first nine prototype localities

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It's been a while between podcasts, what with the summer break and now COVID making its mark in New Zealand. System Fix host Barbara Fountain joins regular panelists Gabrielle Baker and Tim Tenbensel to catch up with progress on the roll out of the health sector reforms, or as we like to call it, the Big Little Revolution

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New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain and senior journalist Martin Johnston recap progress with the country's health reforms in 2021

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New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain talks to Stephen McKernan, director of the Health and Disability Review Transition Unit, and his deputy, Martin Hefford, about function trumping form, a crucial health plan, central agencies vs local services, communities and localities, private providers, workforce, leadership and, ultimately, selling the plan for health sector reform and convincing people to stay the course

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New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain talks to David Meates, former chief executive of Canterbury DHB and now roving health reform consultant, about how change happens in health systems…and more

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It’s just over 400 days since the report of the Health and Disability System Review Panel, aka the Simpson Report, was released. New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain and regular System Fix panelists Gabrielle Baker and Tim Tenbensel catch up on the latest developments in the roll out of reforms to the New Zealand health system

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