Tēnā koutou

Quality.  Service. Innovation.

Passionate about making Wellington’s health services responsive, joined-up, and easy to navigate - and easy for people to get involved in their own care.  Champion for clinical leadership that is supported to make our health services the best they can be.  Confident that we can have world class services, even within our current spend, if only we had the courage to boldly innovate.  This requires visionary governance that provides space and inspiration to act.

Paediatrician and Public Health Physician working in General Practice.  Previously, public servant - in senior strategy and information systems roles with the Ministry of Health.

Executive Leadership at Stanford School of Business; Health Policy at Johns Hopkins University; clinical work in New Zealand, Scotland and New York; medical training at the University of Otago and Wellington School of Medicine; a young family – all provide perspective for visionary governance.

Ngā mihi

Top 5 Issues

1. Environment friendly CCDHB
   
   I favour Capital & Coast DHB taking a leadership role in being environmentally friendly. Health is one of the biggest industries in our community, and it has one of the biggest carbon footprints. There are many measures that can be taken which not only are good for the environment - and for health - but sound from a business vantage too. I am a member of a health professionals' environment group OraTaiao and co-authored an article in the NZMJ last year http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/122-1304/3827/
2. Resident Doctors
   
   I've been asked: I'd like to know your position with regard to the current negotiations between the DHBs and the Resident Doctors Association, and what action will you take if elected?
   
   My position is that I want to see Resident Doctors have substantially improved conditions and attractive career paths, ie going well beyond what is currently being debated in the current negotiations.
   
   The way I would like to see that achieved is through involving Resident Doctors more meaningfully in changing how we deliver health care. I sincerely believe we can have world class health services within our current spend: this will require bold innovation that changes how we equip and support the workforce with better processes and technologies. I see Resident Doctors as a critical source of ideas and champions for the required innovation.
   
   If elected, I will be forward about the imperative for bolder innovation, and that the ideas, drive, and champions for the required change should be nurtured from within the workforce, in particular, Resident Doctors. I will support continuation of the current call for shared clinical leadership within DHBs and will seek more meaningful involvement of Resident Doctors in that process.
   
   These are perspectives and voice that I would bring to the Board. I would do this in a manner that is firm, respectful, and mindful of sound governance.
   
   
3. Public Participation
   
   I've been asked: what will you do to foster public participation in decision-making?
   
   Participation by citizens is key to making our health services world class. I see co-production as an essential element of effective health services. Co-production delivers benefits at every level of the health system, ie from day-to-day management of risk factors for disease and disability, through living well with chronic disease, to governance that is relevant and timely. Citizen participation and co-production has been the focus of my professional work for the last few years.
   
   How would I help make this real?
   
   First, I have a good appreciation of how critical participation is, not just from a philosophical point of view, but also in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. However you look at participation, it is the right thing to do.
   
   Second, as a board member, I would be in a position of influence to keep this collectively front-of-mind and part of the fabric of how we work.
   
   Third, I would be requiring that citizen participation and co-production to be an explicit feature of the strategic plan, and for this to be tangibly manifest in the work programme – for example in the information and communications technology (ICT) investments. Innovative ICT, in a context of bold vision and sound governance, will enable us – collectively – to transform our health services to be world class.
   
   This is large scale change. Collectively, we are contemplating fundamental change in how we think about health and health services, and who we regard as the health workforce: health is everyone’s business. For this change to reach critical mass, voice in governance is required – voice that amplifies the game-changing expectations of citizens in the Capital and Coast district.
   
   
4. Innovation
   
   I've been asked: what impact do you hope to have?
   
   The difference I would make is over stiffening resolve to innovate. We need to do things differently to get to a higher level of performance – world class performance. I sincerely believe that, even within our current spend, we can achieve world class performance through innovative redeployment of people, processes and technology. We have talented people who have been unhelpfully constrained, processes that are suboptimal, and technology – particularly information and communications technology - that is holding us back. On the Board, I would be in a position to ask more searching questions, understand the strategic implications of proposed innovations, and to support bold prudent innovation in Capital and Coast DHB’s strategic direction.
   
5. Governance
   
   I've been asked: what skills do you hope to bring to the DHB?
   
   The skills I would bring to the DHB are professional training and experience at several levels in health systems. I have training and experience in health policy, systems design and strategy. This builds on practical foundations: I am a medical doctor, with paediatrics and public health medicine specialties. I’m currently working in the front line of clinical care – in General Practice in Wellington’s CBD. I bring perspectives from my New Zealand roots and from working as a clinician in a number of states/countries: Scotland, New York, Maryland, New Zealand. I have sound business fundamentals, including executive training at Stanford University, and a keen interest in governance.
   

Personal Profile

Tēnā koutou

Quality.  Service. Innovation.

Passionate about making Wellington’s health services responsive, joined-up, and easy to navigate - and easy for people to get involved in their own care.  Champion for clinical leadership that is supported to make our health services the best they can be.  Confident that we can have world class services, even within our current spend, if only we had the courage to boldly innovate.  This requires visionary governance that provides space and inspiration to act.

Paediatrician and Public Health Physician working in General Practice.  Previously, public servant - in senior strategy and information systems roles with the Ministry of Health.

Executive Leadership at Stanford School of Business; Health Policy at Johns Hopkins University; clinical work in New Zealand, Scotland and New York; medical training at the University of Otago and Wellington School of Medicine; a young family – all provide perspective for visionary governance.

Ngā mihi