Patients given a voice in boardroom

CATALYST: Kevin Atkinson, left, chairman of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board, said Graeme Norton, right, has brought the health consumer's voice to the fore as chairman of the new Hawke's Bay Health Consumer Council. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

THE absence of the health consumer's voice at boardroom level had worried Kevin Atkinson, chairman of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board (HBDHB). Then along came Graeme Norton, winner of theHawke's Bay Health Sector Leadership Achievement Award at the recent Hawke's Bay Health Awards.

Mr Norton is a founder of 3R Group, an award-winning Hawke's Bay business that operates nationally and specialises in recycling problematic waste such as farm plastic and household paint.

With an adept chief executive at his company's helm, Mr Norton, who suffers from diabetes, said he was looking for an opportunity to give back to the community.

He is chairman of the Urgent Care Alliance, an initiative working across the region's health sector to integrate responses for urgent care, is part of the Hawke's Bay Diabetes leadership team and is also chairman of a new body that represents consumers - the Hawke's Bay Health Consumer Council.

Mr Atkinson said the Consumer Council was set up because the HBDHB was unhappy with governance structures.

"Up until four or five years ago, I didn't realise we had actually had a consumer committee and I didn't know a single person that was on it," he said. "I didn't have a clue they were meeting every one or two months.

"The idea of establishing the Consumer Council came from many years of frustration and a keenness to look for alternative ways of actually providing the advice required."

An advisory board along the lines of the successful Clinical Council was formed, and after a contested process Mr Norton was appointed chairman. Through a public process, he recruited 15 people to the group.

Mr Norton said the council represented many voices and was not just about governance. It also helped HBDHB management with key projects such as the Transform and Sustain programme.

It reports directly to chief executive Dr Kevin Snee and presents a report to monthly board meetings, where it has speaking rights on all issues.

Mr Norton said all processes were transparent. "We don't hide anything - nothing is bubbling away, so there are no surprises."

Mr Atkinson said the Consumer Council was a success because of Mr Norton's guidance.

"Too often we see these sorts of committees set up and operating simply because they are there by statute, and they have a meeting every month or two months.

"In health I've seen so many meetings not actually benefit the service in any way at all," he said.

"What we have seen through the work of Graeme and his team, there are some real benefits in the work that they have done and [it has] the flowed through into decisions the board has made."

There was "an incredible amount of respect" for Mr Norton's leadership and commitment, said Mr Atkinson.

"Graeme is very passionate and willing to give probably more time than what one would consider appropriate."

Mr Norton said if health providers found out what mattered to a patient, "then that is a fundamental entry point to solving what is the matter".

"If you don't understand what matters to them you have got an uphill battle."

The health system was better for opening up "to the voice of the population being embedded in the work. That does require a leap of faith but I think the system is finding the vast majority of the population live on a budget and are quite pragmatic," he said.

"They realise you can't have everything, because that is the world they live in."