October 2024
Recent weeks have seen significant advocacy being undertaken by members of our Executive Leadership Team. There have been many hui with health providers across the region, attendance at Te Kupenga Hauora Ahuriri’s 30th anniversary celebration, and the hosting of a kapa haka event with our Māori Health Providers, held at Te Aranga Marae in Flaxmere during Te Wiki o te reo Māori.
There has been collaboration with other PHOs including Tū Ora Compass (Wellington), THINK Hauora (Palmerston North) and Whanganui Regional Health Network. We have been looking at long term condition management under our Long Term Conditions Strategy (A3 Summary) for our subregion.
We were fortunate to welcome Robyn Shearer, Deputy Chief Executive – Ikaroa | Central Region for Te Whatu Ora, onto Te Awa o te Hauora Marae at Hawke’s Bay Hospital. We have followed up with further conversations with the Central Region leadership group and look forward to welcoming the team into the region in due course.
I have also had the pleasure of meeting with Dr Lester Levy, the Government-appointed Commissioner for Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand, with other PHO CEs. Dr Levy indicated the three priorities for Primary Care are:
* Decreasing waiting times
* Increasing productivity
* Being efficient with the resources we have
It was pleasing to hear Dr Levy identifying the importance of primary care, along with the need to make changes and do things differently.