Meet the Southern DHB candidates
Southern District Health Board candidates were given the chance to answer the questions: ‘‘Why are you standing and what would you like to change?’’
Southland (3 vacancies) Neville Cook
Experience and knowledge count. My previous governance experience as a board member of the Southern DHB and other organisations means that I know how decisions are made and how funding and services are allocated.
I understand the language, the finances and the needs of southerners. It is important to elect people who have the knowledge of how our complicated health services delivery system functions, and how governance at a regional level operates. We need to take action to correct the downsizing and service withdrawal from Southland that has taken place under the commissioner’s regime.
The Southern District has received significant additional funding without providing corresponding additional services, and there are longstanding internal tensions that need to be resolved in the interests of people needing treatment. Everyone in the region must have equal access to services and not be disadvantaged by geography.
Pania Coote
I am standing because people should not experience poor healthcare. They should not face delay after delay. They should be referred to diagnostic services in a timely manner and have access to quality care services that are responsive to their needs, regardless of their postcode. There should not be disparities between population groups; there should be fairness in the health system. A lot of good work has happened over the years but we still have a long way to go to achieve equitable health outcomes for everyone.
Changes needed include the strategic alignment of services, a whole-health-system approach with an equity focus, improved access to specialist services regardless of where you live, faster treatment, fewer delays, the building of business intelligence systems and shared care platforms, and an environment of inclusion that capitalises on the diverse backgrounds, knowledge, skills and motivation that will enhance a changing healthcare environment.
Kaye Crowther
Why am I standing? Our services continue to diminish. We are having to travel further to appointments. Our wait times for cancer treatments have increased. Our mental health services wait times have increased; this is evident for our youth. Our elderly and those needing home support are having services cut without warning. Maternity services for our rural areas are under threat and in some cases have already closed, with maternity hubs as a means of support which are clearly not resourced adequately.
Why vote for me? My proven strong community voice as an advocate. My strong commitment to families’ needs – putting people first. My commitment to achieving the very best health outcomes for all Southlanders. My experience in governance, leadership and strategic direction during my time as New Zealand president for Plunket, and as a current trustee for No 10 YOSS. My past experience on the Southern DHB.
Terry King
My mission is to ensure excellent patient services and resourcing for Southland. As a patient advocate, I support the reinstatement of the Lumsden Maternity Centre, and as a cancer survivor strongly believe in a national cancer agency as promoted by Winton’s Blair Vining and others. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health, diabetes and dementia are major challenges.
During my term as national president of Grey Power NZ, I led parliamentary lobbying visits to the minister of health and Pharmac, and met Opposition health spokespeople while advocating on behalf of senior citizens. I have a background in financial services and community service, including many years as a justice of the peace and nine years as an Invercargill City councillor.
I bring a practical approach to governance. As a strong people’s advocate with commitment to ensure quality health services for Southland, I would appreciate your support.
Roland Meyer
Having worked as a doctor for the past 30 years in different roles in both Southland and Canterbury, I see myself as a voice for the people needing health services, and a voice for the people delivering it. I see the impact of health inequities on a daily basis, as many Southland people struggle to access medical care for themselves and their loved ones. Every day the people who are working in health are doing their best and giving their all for patients.
I want to work hard to ensure that the system is well connected and accountable so patients don’t fall through the gaps. No DHB is the same, and the reality is there are limits to what can be provided. However, those who provide care should be enabled to develop new ways of working, so the system responds to community needs.
Ben Nettleton
I’m seeking membership of the Southern DHB because it needs strong and effective leadership.
Key priorities include: 1) funding responsive, localised services that meet our region’s diverse geographic needs, in particular maternity care; 2) delivery of cancer treatment; 3) supporting an integrated system to ensure joinedup delivery of healthcare from GP visit to hospital care and all needs in between.
The DHB needs strong and disciplined governance to meet the needs of the Southland community and I can bring the skills to the table to make that happen; sticking with the status quo won’t achieve this.
I am confident in challenging thought and driving effective implementation and will be a strong advocate for Southland. If elected I will do my level best to contribute to an effective board, 100 per cent focused on operating New Zealand’s best DHB.
Benje Patterson
I am standing to ensure a strong voice for families and those facing difficulty accessing vital health services. Health service provision can’t be dictated by managerial convenience. As an economist, I am an expert at guiding decisions using real evidence about real people and their wellbeing. I also understand the south – I grew up in Invercargill, studied and worked in Dunedin, and currently live in Queenstown. My top priorities are to provide more cancer diagnostic and treatment services locally to reduce patient travel to Dunedin, to guarantee Southland Hospital services to avoid cuts due to cost burdens from Dunedin’s new hospital, to increase maternity care in rural Southland and Queenstown to ensure safety for mums and babies, to improve the quality of home-based care to help people remain at home instead of being forced into residential care, and public commitment from the DHB to a detailed action plan for a fit-for-purpose Queenstown hospital.
Marion Poore
I’ve worked as a doctor all my life, first in general practice and until recently as a public health physician at Southern DHB. I’m familiar with the health issues facing communities in Southland and Otago, especially in rural and high-growth areas.
I’m standing because I’m passionate about the need for highquality healthcare, sustainable health services, and care that is easily available to everyone. I’ll be advocating for more emphasis on preventing illness and keeping people well to help reduce the rising demand for services; better engagement with communities so local health services needs can be met; and reducing inequalities in health outcomes that are unfair and preventable. A continued focus on quality and safety across the DHB – healthcare that promotes wellness, keeps people safe, helps with navigating the complex system, respectful care, and that provides the right care. Sustainable healthcare services to improve health system performance.
Leanne Samuel
Why stand for SDHB? Southland’s health services (cardiac, cancer, mental health, public health/ community, disability, Ma¯ori and Pacific etc) are at risk and failing.
The majority of services should be safely provided in Southland with an innovative, well-resourced, local, qualified, safely staffed, listened-to workforce. The SDHB’s failing performance and poor patient outcomes must improve.
I bring governance skills to support culture and leadership change at the SDHB. Experienced, trusted, driven, senior nurse/ midwife with years of successful clinical, governance and operational leadership, within several large health and disability organisations. I am straight-talking, with recent eye-opening experience at Wellington’s successful DHB. I’m a director on two local health and disability boards who is determined to ensure the best possible services.
I bring strong values and demand equitable access to local, well-planned, well-funded, sustainable services, expecting the best health outcomes that families/ wha¯nau deserve.
Lesley Soper
I’m standing because I can be a strong Southland public voice on the restored SDHB, and have unique experience to bring. This is the chance to be heard loud and clear on local health issues and fair funding, and to ensure any new tertiary hospital in Dunedin delivers for the whole region, while Southland Hospital and rural services are also strengthened.
I want to see a comprehensive review of the DHB funding formula to ensure that the SDHB has fair and equitable funding in the first place, and that we ‘‘get to the bottom’’ of the unacceptable deficit.
I also want immediate implementation of the SDHB’s external review for bowel cancer treatment; mental health and disability services improved; an end to ‘‘postcode health’’ delivery; plus drivers of poor health like old and cold homes and poverty to be addressed by the DHB. An ounce of prevention is worth a tonne of treatment.
Otago (3 vacancies)
Shanon Arnold
I am standing as I have had some family and friends with health issues and have not enjoyed the health system process. I would like to change how patients are seen.
For example, not just a number or that a bed is needed so let’s discharge. I would love to see a patient receive an earlier diagnosis, not pushed from one department to another with no resolution in sight. It is a painful experience that I am well aware of. I wish to make some long-term changes to how we are looked after as people, and not just a number through a door.
I am not a politician but do have a very caring nature; I am not one to make false promises but am very dedicated to making a better, smoother healthcare system for us all. In Dunedin we are getting a new hospital. Let’s bring back patient customer service.
Craig Ashton
Our DHB has a road ahead with many challenges to overcome; we can do much better to curb the growing pressure we are facing for
our future generations, and I’m passionate about leaving our health system for my children in a better state than it is today.
By optimising how primary and community services integrate and connect as a whole-of-health system, we can directly improve our population’s health outcomes, target areas of immediate concern like mental health services, improve access to specialist services and strategically target growing areas of concern such as increasing rates of diabetes, address issues around child neglect and family violence, and focus on future-proofing the health impacts of an aging demographic.
We have an exciting opportunity to be part of a modern health system solution that fully utilises our expertise and capability and connects with a range of crosssector and community partners.
Bob Barlin
The SDHB covers an enormous area with a large population. There are many logistical challenges.
I have had a varied life as a New Zealand Army officer, United Nations and Red Cross aid worker in many disaster zones globally, where my roles were either logistics, operations or management. I have listened to people, both staff and the public, to understand their problems, negotiate a solution, write the plan of action, set the budget and then implement that plan within budget. Most jobs were medically orientated. I like to get the job done. I am currently an adviser on the Community Health Council, Dunedin new hospital build.
Your SDHB needs a balance of experienced medical personnel and with logistical challenges, a component to bring another aspect to provide a balanced management. I have proved that good logistical processes save money for operations. I hope I can earn your trust to meet and overcome these challenges.
Jason Bauchop
I am standing because I believe our health system is in crisis. Record deficits demonstrate that our DHB is underfunded. Patients and their families struggle to get timely access to the healthcare they deserve. I want to ensure that our health professionals and services are adequately resourced.
Improving timely access to cancer treatments is a priority. The increasing demands placed upon our mental health services and the increasingly complex health needs of an ageing population are notable areas of concern. The DHB must also focus on maintaining health and wellbeing rather than just treating illness.
Working for the SDHB, I have the knowledge and financial understanding to be a positive force for change. I will strive to improve healthcare for all people in our region, especially rural populations, those with long-term conditions and our community’s most vulnerable members. We can and must do better!
Ilka Beekhuis
I’m running a zero-spend campaign to demonstrate my commitment to ending unnecessary spending at the Southern DHB. I have experience as a patient with the SDHB when my daughter had a rare tumour that went undiagnosed for two years. While advocating for her care, a clinician told me to meditate and labelled me an ‘‘anxious mother’’. After finding a good GP and paediatrician, my daughter had surgery at Auckland’s Starship Hospital, where she received worldclass care. From that experience, I joined the Community Health Council, where I volunteer with the SDHB and WellSouth (our region’s GP network) to give advice on policies from a patient’s perspective. We must elect someone who understands a patient’s journey.
Undoubtedly, this board will make drastic financial decisions. These decisions must include a patient’s perspective to ensure improved access and quality of care in the southern health system.
John Chambers
It is essential that there are a range of experienced health professionals on the board. As an emergency specialist with 26 years of experience I am aware of the barriers faced by our population trying to access care for themselves and their families.
Timely care and investigations when they need it, not hours, weeks or months later. Board members’ main role is to ask questions in response to reports and proposals prepared by the executive. I believe I know what questions to ask in the Southern region to bring about change. I was very surprised when elected in 2013 that the business of the board was mainly conducted in private. This did not seem either necessary or productive. Health boards overseas faced with serious concerns about performance now conduct almost all business in public. That is the change required in the SDHB, and I promise I will make that change.
Graham Clarke
I am standing ‘‘just for the health of it’’. I really care about changing the health of this country. Why? Because we have a health crisis in New Zealand – a Titanic of our own. Luckily, we can get off the iceberg – if we choose to.
The iceberg I am talking about is chronic disease. We can continue to shuffle the deckchairs while we sink, or we can make a significant change to our approach to healthcare. My mission is to incentivise wellbeing. We need to pay doctors to support your health rather than treat your illness. We need to employ health coaches to help – in the home where required.
We can use an XPRIZE approach to develop protocols to eliminate type-2 diabetes and other avoidable illness. We need birth care back in our rural areas. My recipe is Titanic’s liferaft of positive change and wellness.
Dave Cull
The SDHB is at a critical time. A new hospital is about to be built in Dunedin. However, unless the model of care across the region moves towards public health initiatives and primary care access with a preventative focus, then our hospitals still won’t cope with demand within any foreseeable budget. And unless the hospital’s organisational and clinical culture becomes less hierarchical and more collaborative, efficient and inclusive of all health professionals’ input, then specialist hospital services will continue to struggle.
Additionally, the health and wellbeing of the south cannot be solely the responsibility of the SDHB. Councils, medical centres, community housing providers, and social service agencies need to work together as well. I offer strong governance experience as a threeterm Dunedin mayor and the experience to bring together groups, agencies, professions and individuals for a common effort.
Lyndell Kelly
We have a health system that is far from world standard. Years of penny-pinching have led to a system where only the very ill get what they need. It can take four visits to ED to warrant a CT scan; all the while the cancer grows. Knees have to cripple someone before they are bad enough to be fixed.
So the eventual treatment is more expensive and recovery less likely. Saying no to requests that are granted elsewhere is regarded as frugal but ends up very expensive. Cries for help from staff are ignored, leading to demoralisation and hopelessness. Complacency leads to a worse ‘‘normal’’.
It is with passion and frustration that I stand for the SDHB. I bring 37 years of public hospital service to the board. I understand healthcare is a network that needs to be maintained and improved for the good of all of us.
Malcolm Macpherson
I’m standing because both of my parents died of cancer. I’m a 30-year cancer survivor. I take the role personally. And I take a deep and broad skill set to the SDHB table. Twelve years previous SDHB experience, three as community and disability committee chair. Central Lakes Trust nine years, district mayor nine years, past and present leadership roles in more than 30 organisations. Shareholder and director of a brand new 7000-patient general practice, embarking on a Health Care Home project.
To change? What about culture? By all accounts toxic in some places. Put the district back in the SDHB. It’s not a hospital board, it’s our board. After five years of commissioner rule, it’s time the community’s voice was heard again. Would there be gaps in maternity, mental health, emergency care, access for surgery (it’s a long list) if the community advisory committee that I chaired were active?
Lindsay Rackley
I was born in Dunedin and received a Queen’s Service Medal in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting. I started with 4XD in 1961. In 1990, I was instrumental in setting up the then 4XD as a full-time commercial station. Until October 2015, I was presenter of the afternoon show.
Now I’m a fill-in announcer, and currently presenter of the Sunday breakfast show. Also known on air as Crackley Rackley. Currently a Go Bus driver for special needs children and urban buses, and a former ambulance officer and a funeral director’s assistant.
In 2009, I developed a lymphoma cancer, ending in a successful treatment. Along with recent visits to some departments at Dunedin Hospital, I have become very aware of the workings of the health board and the excellent way they operate, and would love to be a member of the SDHB, particularly during the exciting hospital rebuild.
Jeanette Saxby
Te¯na¯ koutou katoa. Ko Jeanette toku ingoa. I am a proud mother of three, a former teacher and trained AOD clinician. I own and run a small healthcare business in South Dunedin. I am standing for the SDHB because I care about the people in my community. I will work for free if elected because I see it as vitally important to bring about a culture change in public health.
The health platform I stand on is: prevention, public engagement and transparency. We must have the money to perform the services people need. We must reduce waiting times, and we must create better health outcomes for Ma¯ori with more Ma¯ori practices.
We must also reduce waste and reduce the hours that doctors work. We much have more nurse practitioners. Ordinary people want access to timely and affordable healthcare. I will work to bring it.
Andrew Velman
For the past 15 years I’ve been living in the constituency area, graduating from Telford Polytechnic in 2005. I moved much further south for a year – to Scott Base, where I was employed by Downer Engineering (TelecomNZ and Science Events support). Antarctica reinforced my belief in the role we have to play in nature: to be a thoughtful guardian who shares environment with others. Life is fragile.
In my councillor’s capacity, I will bring a diverse and positive approach to the challenging issues we are all facing today: climate change, pollution, economic pressures, conflicting views. I will offer a new model of local-central government in the 2020 general election by forming the Come Together Party. We must make it right for us, for our children and for nature at large. Otago, South Island, New Zealand, the Earth – our home. Life is good! Be patient, study and go forward!
Rob Woodhouse
I stand for healthcare from the cradle to the grave. Central government currently underfunds the Southern DHB given its size and geographic challenges.
There also has to be a review of non-clinician roles as the SDHB is too management heavy. There is a $1 billion budget, yet babies are being born on the side of the road. Bowel cancer rates in the south are the highest in New Zealand, yet we have the lowest rate of colonoscopies in New Zealand. Cancer treatment (early detection and treatment) is far from adequate.
Greater resources need to be allocated to emergency departments, early detection units for all cancers, and coronary care. We are too far removed from international best practice. We need a patient-centric model where the patient comes first – from the cradle to the grave. Patients are dying while on waiting lists – this is unacceptable. Furthermore, mental health does not wait for waiting lists.
As part of our election coverage, we invited candidates to submit a profile of why they are standing. Where candidates are elected unopposed we haven’t profiled them, and those who didn’t meet the deadline were not included.