ROLE CALL: New ProCare directors; Women health sector leaders; From college to council

ProCare Network Ltd’s co-operative board has three new faces following the PHO’s annual general meeting, and director and Health New Lynn specialist GP Craig King was re-elected.

The newcomers are Donovan Clarke (Ngāti Te Ata, Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Hine), independent director, and specialist GPs Wiki Gillespie (Ngati Kahungunu) and Jodie O’Sullivan, directors. The terms are for three years.

The chief executive of Toitū te Waiora Workforce Development Council since September, Mr Clarke was in 2016 chief executive of Manaia Health PHO, leaving in 2019 ahead of the merger of Manaia and Te Tai Tokerau PHOs to form Mahitahi Hauora.

Dr Gillespie is a partner at Swanson Medical in Auckland and has a particular interest in children’s and women’s health, mental health and diabetes.

Dr O’Sullivan is a partner at Mt Eden 575 Doctors with special interests in paediatrics and disease prevention. She is also a director on the ProCare Health (PHO) Ltd board.

Specialist GPs Neil Hefford and Stephanie Taylor stepped down from the co-operative board after serving eight and four years respectively. Dr Taylor remains a director of the PHO board.

Women’s health researcher and specialist GP Bev Lawton (Ngāti Porou) is a finalist in the Stuff-Westpac 2021 Women of Influence Awards.

Professor Lawton, founder and director of Te Tātai Hauora o Hine Centre of Women’s Health Research at Victoria University of Wellington is a finalist in the innovation, science and health category. She was a finalist in the awards last year.

Also in the health category is Angela Lim, chief executive of digital mental health provider Clearhead.

Debbie Sorensen, chief executive of both whānau ora commissioning agency Pasifika Futures and the Pasifika Medical Association, is a finalist in the business enterprise category. In the primary industries category,

Tia Potae, a whānau ora navigator based in Milton for whānau ora commissioning agency Te Pūtahitanga O Te Waipounamu, is a finalist.

In the public policy category, finalists include Fiona Michel, who was nominated for her role as director of sector engagement, workforce and welfare in the COVID-19 Vaccination Immunisation Programme at the Ministry of Health, a role on secondment from her job as chief people and culture officer at energy company Vector. In December, Ms Michel takes up a new role as chief executive officer at Braemar Hospital in Hamilton. The award winners will be announced in February.

The RNZCGP’s principal advisor Māori Richard Tankersley leaves the college this month to join the executive leadership team at the Medical Council. The role involves implementing a framework to advance the council’s Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitments, responsibilities and obligations. Mr Tankersley has been with the college for three years and is a former human rights commissioner.