The Roster Te Rārangi: Edition 23

Different kinds of coaching
Hinemaua Rikirangi (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Hako), the new chief advisor Māori in the system strategy & policy directorate at the Ministry of Health, is immersed in te ao Māori. Ms Rikirangi has worked in iwi, corporates, local and central government in a range of strategic, management and governance roles. She also has a passion for life coaching, and works with individuals using neuro-linguistic programming therapies and hypnotherapy. Ms Rikirangi formerly headed Māori economic development at the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, and was senior advisor Māori for Bank of New Zealand.

Chief nurse starts this week
Lorraine Hetaraka (Tapuika, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāiterangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Kahu) has long been a supporter of Māori nurses and midwives, including work with the Ngā Manukura o Āpōpō workforce development programme. Ms Hetaraka starts this week as chief nursing officer at the Ministry of Health, after a year leading the Rotorua-based collective Te Arawa Whānau Ora. A former respiratory-bronchiectasis nurse specialist at Starship Hospital, she has headed up nursing at primary care networks Tamaki Healthcare, ProCare and the National Hauora Coalition.

An eventful time guaranteed
Andrew Connolly is the new chief medical officer at the ministry for the 2021 year. Mr Connolly is a general and colorectal surgeon at Counties Manukau DHB and retains a clinical role there. This New Zealand Doctor|Rata Aotearoa profile was published after his eventful five years’ chairing the Medical Council. More recently, he served on the Health Quality & Safety Commission. He is a clinical advisor to Waikato DHB, where he was deputy commissioner, and Southern DHB, where he was a Crown monitor.

Hefty roles lead back to ministry
After managing the birth of a new organisation out of the Treasury – the NZ Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga – trained pharmacist Karen Mitchell has arrived at the Ministry of Health in a new, temporary role: deputy director-general of the health infrastructure unit. At the ministry from 2001 to 2008, Ms Mitchell helped set up the National Screening Unit. Later she managed strategy for Hutt Valley DHB. At various agencies, she then led key arrangements for new prisons, the Transmission Gully State highway near Wellington, and social housing reforms.

Little appoints a predecessor
Pete Hodgson has begun a two-year term chairing Southern DHB as an appointee of health minister Andrew Little. Mr Hodgson was health minister from 2005 to 2007, and associate minister in 2004/05. He was the Labour MP for Dunedin North between October 1990 and November 2011, his portfolios including energy, fisheries and small business. Formerly a teacher and veterinarian, he went on to become chief executive of Otago Innovation Ltd, the company commercialising technology developed at the University of Otago. He now chairs Crown entity Callaghan Innovation.

A COVID-19 reshuffle
Canterbury primary health organisation Pegasus Health has an acting chief executive, Mark Liddle, covering for veteran boss Vince Barry. Mr Liddle has moved up from chief operating officer while Mr Barry helps to coordinate the South Island rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme on a six-month secondment. Mr Barry is a member of the Government’s COVID-19 immunisation advisory group.

Keeping an eye on health IT
Mark Cox holds the fort at New Zealand Health IT – the digital health industry’s peak body – while it recruits a chief executive. Mr Cox will replace Scott Aroll (Roster edition 17). Auckland-based Mr Cox established and managed Asia-Pacific operations for multinational health software companies Sysmex and ICNet. He has been an independent health IT consultant since July 2019. A former NZHIT board member, he worked on its submission to the Health and Disability System Review Panel. He is not seeking the chief executive job; an appointee will be announced soon.

Vitamin D and much more
An internationally recognised public health researcher specialising in vitamin D, Robert Scragg, has been confirmed as head of the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. Professor Scragg spent over a year as interim head while an international search was undertaken for a permanent appointee; the process was delayed by COVID-19. The university noted his strong advocacy for the school, dedication to all its activities, and positive engagement with the wider university sector.

'Inclusive, fair and sustainable'
The Helen Clark Foundation, an independent public policy think tank keen to foster debate toward a more inclusive, fair and sustainable society, has named new board members and a new staffer (below). The board members are: consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder (Te Aupouri, Ngāti Kurī, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi); University of Auckland associate professor of criminology Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni (from the Samoan villages of Saoluafata – her birth village – and Salani, Iva, Saleaumua and Samusu, with maternal ties to Niuatoputapu in Tonga); and international art advisor, curator and photojournalist Helen Klisser During.

Investigating health equity
As a senior journalist at Stuff, Matt Shand produced investigative articles on the New Zealand First Foundation. Now, as the Health Coalition Aotearoa health equity fellow at the Helen Clark Foundation, Tauranga-based Mr Shand is investigating the challenges in tackling health equity in Aotearoa. His role is made possible by a partnership between the coalition and the MAS Foundation. The coalition advocates for reduced consumption of harmful products, and improved determinants of health. The MAS Foundation is the charitable arm of MAS, an insurance and investment company for health professionals.

Rollercoaster ride continues
The New Zealand Medical Association elections are under way but have one (uncontested) result: The new deputy chair is Vanessa Weenink, a partner at a GP practice in Christchurch and chair of the association’s GP Council.
In the unsolicited thumbs-up department: It’s good to see Counties Manukau DHB’s efforts to improve its ageing buildings (Roster edition 21). The DHB is expanding and refurbishing the Manukau Health Park, and inviting people to say what they need from the facility.
It already feels like a rollercoaster year of change in the sector! It would be great if you forwarded this newsletter to a colleague so they too can subscribe.

– Virginia McMillan, editor
phone 021 914 699 or email vmcmillan@nzdoctor.co.nz