Bloomfield presenting at palliative care symposium
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will be presenting at Waipuna Hospice Palliative Care in our Compassionate Community Symposium on May 17.
The symposium aims to create a more compassionate community to support people at the end of their lives by bringing together industry leaders, sharing their knowledge and experience on palliative care in today's landscape.
Dr Bloomfield, a 1990 medical graduate with years of clinical work specialised in public health medicine, has been a familiar face in the media since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering daily updates and announcements, and helping lead New Zealand through unprecedented times.
On May 17 at the syposium Dr Bloomfield will be “virtually” presenting and discussing how New Zealand crushed the curve with kindness in 2020, and exploring the lessons he hopes we take into 2021 and beyond.
Waipuna Hospice CEO Richard Thurlow is thrilled to welcome Dr Bloomfield to what is already shaping up to be an engaging and thought provoking symposium. “I had the pleasure of hearing Dr Bloomfield present last year and he is definitely an inspiring speaker who has demonstrated sublime leadership for the whole of the country over the last year. I am excited to hear Ashley present on ‘how kindness killed the curve' — especially as kindness is one of the central pillars of compassionate communities.”
Bloomfield is the sixth keynote speaker to be announced by
Waipuna Hospice. He is joined by Bay of Plenty DHB CEO, Pete Chandler; clinical adviser to Hospice New Zealand, Professor Rod Macleod; Research Fellow and founding member of the Te A¯ rai Palliative Care and End of Life Research Group, School of Nursing at University of Auckland, Dr Tess Moeke Maxwell; Starship Children's Hospital paediatric palliative care specialist, Dr Emily Chang and general paediatrician and the medical lead for paediatrics in the Bay of Plenty, Dr Justin Wilde.
When planning the symposium, Waipuna Hospice made it a priority
to create a programme which left attendees with a better understanding of how palliative care fits into the community, and the role they play. To achieve this, discussions on the day are set to range from caring for Ma¯ori kauma¯tua at end of life, and learning from the past to shape the future, to paediatric palliative care and how end of life care fits into a compassionate community. Health professionals, carers, and interested people from the community are invited to purchase tickets, however, tickets are already selling fast and the event is expected to sell out.