Hawke's Bay DHB chief Keriana Brooking pledges to improve services, while cutting spending

Keriana Brooking said it was a shock that she was the first Māori woman chief executive of a district health board. Photo / RNZ - Dom Thomas

By Anusha Bradley of RNZ

The new chief executive of Hawke's Bay District Health Board is pledging to improve services, especially for Māori and Pasifika, while also cutting the health budget.

But an order from the Ministry of Health to save $9 million over the next two years may result in cuts to some patient services, Keriana Brooking said.

Brooking, who previously worked under Dr Ashley Bloomfield at the Ministry of Health, started in her new role last week, becoming the first wahine Māori chief executive of a district health board.

Improving the health outcomes for Māori and Pasifika communities, which make up more than 50 percent of the region's population; better access to mental health and addiction services and reduced waiting times for elective surgeries were among her her top priorities, Brooking said.

This was despite having to make $9m in savings over the next two years.

"We've got to work through how we are going to do that."

No analysis had been done on where cuts might be made, but areas included locums, and the cost of doing elective surgeries privately or sending patients out of the district for care, Brooking said.

"It's never a comfortable space ... it's always a balance, and at times there will be parts of the community who will experience less service than they have, and there'll be parts of the community who will experience more."

The DHB was forecast to break even in June 2022, and it would also receive more funding longer-term as the population was growing, Brooking said.

Other priorities for Brooking included building relationships with partner agencies and iwi, and focusing on the health of the youngest and oldest in the community.

"The first 1000 days are hugely important ... and also we are seeing massive growth in Māori living for longer, but they have to have healthy life expectancy.

"The adage of what's best for Māori is best for everybody is equally applicable to the first 1000 days and through to our elderly."

Destined for Hawke's Bay

Brooking applied to be chief executive despite only being in her deputy-director general role at the Health Ministry for 18 months.

"I always knew that I wanted to be a chief executive of a DHB, and I always knew it was going to be Hawke's Bay."

Brooking, of Ngāti Pāhauwera and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, has strong links to the region as her father was born and raised in Wairoa before he moved to Oamaru where he raised his own family.

"Kevin [Snee] had this role for nine years and the thought of waiting another nine was too much, so I applied."

It was a shock she was the first Māori woman chief executive of a district health board, she said.

"It's almost hard in 2020 to wrap your head around the fact that I am."

There had only been two male Māori chief executives before her appointment.

"Traditionally the way in which CEOs got created and grown in the health hierarchy has made it difficult at times for Māori to imagine the roads they may take in their career.

"It's strange in one way to think it's taken until 2020 to break new ground, but it is also quite privileged because it enables you to show other wahine Māori that it's something, when you put your mind to it, you can get to."