Chandler said he felt a 'deep sense of personal commitment' to the Bay of Plenty. Photo / George Novak
Chandler said he felt a 'deep sense of personal commitment' to the Bay of Plenty. Photo / George Novak
The new health system is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" which will address inequity, the Bay's growing population and better serve the needs of the community, Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief executive Pete Chandler says.
Although the new system - Health New Zealand - will mean Chandler's role will end,he said the health reform "paves the way" to rethink how healthcare is designed to meet the community's needs.
The health reforms mean district health board members' roles will also be disestablished. The country's 20 district health boards will be disestablished at the end of June and all DHB employees will transfer "seamlessly" to Health New Zealand on July 1.
Chandler assured Bay of Plenty residents that the reforms would not affect any services.
"Nothing stops - everything carries on in the normal way."
The Māori Health Authority will also be set up and will jointly develop and implement a national health plan with Health New Zealand. It will own and operate services and aim to improve service delivery and outcomes for Māori. It will also commission services for Māori.
Instead of district health boards, "localities" and "locality plans" will eventually cover every geographic part of the country to identify local health needs.
Each locality will have a plan to identify local needs and priorities, renewed at least every three years. They would need to be approved by Health New Zealand, the Māori Health Authority and the iwi Māori partnership boards.
Health Minister Andrew Little. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Health Minister Andrew Little said there would be between 60 and 80 localities by July 2024. The Eastern Bay of Plenty has been identified as a pilot area.
"A locality for the purposes of the reformed health system has to be a meaningful size – not so large that it is impossible to co-ordinate services, and not so small that it would mean an unwieldy number of localities which would fail to provide the cohesion we are seeking," he said in a speech in Levin in April.
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times, Chandler said DHB boundaries had been an "obstacle" to people accessing healthcare in the past.
"A locality isn't meant to be constraining - it's meant to say in this area there's a synergy which requires specific focus and connection of services to serve this community."
Chandler said addressing "historic inequity" lay "at the heart" of the health reforms.
He said the "traditional model of healthcare" at a hospital level involved people travelling to a hospital, going to a waiting room and seeing a consultant.
"Lots of people get missed out in that model of care.
"Our highest needs are out there in the rural communities.
"We need to move money out there, we need to move expertise out there because ultimately communities know communities best, and particularly in a place like the Bay where we've still got lots of unique, discrete communities."
Pete Chandler's role as Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief executive will be disestablished at the end of June. Photo / George Novak
The reforms would mean: "More prevention, more earlier intervention, more support for people to understand when they need to seek medical help, better access to that help and access to a service in a way that people feel safe."
He said a challenge in the Bay of Plenty was its growing population and different needs.
"The days when somebody presented to the hospital with a problem, it got fixed and they went home are long gone now.
"People come with multiple needs and often social needs that are impacting on their health and wellbeing."
This meant hospital care had become "far more complex [and] time-consuming".
Chandler said the traditional system "often doesn't feel safe to Māori" and there was "no reason" services should not be owned by iwi and kaupapa providers who could provide it to highly-populated Māori communities, as seen in the Eastern Bay.
Chandler said he felt a 'deep sense of personal commitment' to the Bay of Plenty. Photo / George Novak
Chandler said health board chief executives had been asked to take on an "interim role" from July 1 to help support the development of the new structures on a district and regional level. This was expected to run until September.
Beyond that, Chandler said he had "not yet" thought about what he would do next, as it depended on what opportunities arose.
"I feel a deep sense of personal commitment to the Bay, and in the time here I've learned a lot about our communities and their needs. With that learning comes a sense of obligation that says even if I can't do something about that right now, how can we set a track to address those needs in the future?"
Chandler said the reform was "very much a major reset in time".
"Sometimes you need disruptive change to break the models of operating that were designed for just a different time.
"I think fundamentally the health reforms enable that to happen."
