Following the damning national health review out last week, former NDHB board chairman Wayne Brown is calling for a stronger digital focus in Northland's healthcare sector. Photo / File
Following the damning national health review out last week, former NDHB board chairman Wayne Brown is calling for a stronger digital focus in Northland's healthcare sector. Photo / File
Former Northland District Health Board chairman Wayne Brown is calling for a stronger digital focus in the region after last week's damning national health review.
The Health and Disability System Review recommended a considerable overhaul of New Zealand's district health boards with a focus on population health and servicingcommunities it said were often let down by the health sector such as Māori and the disabled.
Key recommendations:
• Shifting to a greater focus on population health (improving the wellbeing of entire populations). • Creating a new Crown entity, provisionally called Health NZ, focused on operational delivery of health and disability services and financial performance. • Reducing the number of DHBs from the current 20 to between eight and 12 within five years, and moving to fully appointed boards. • Creating a Māori Health Authority to advise on all aspects of Māori health policy and to monitor and report on the performance of the system with respect to Māori. • Greater integration between primary and community care and hospital/specialist services.
Brown, who started as board chairman in 1992 and held the position for roughly a decade, said he had confidence in the extensive review and saw it as a chance to address the challenges Northlanders faced accessing healthcare.
Wayne Brown (centre) also held roles of board chairman and commissioner at the Auckland DHB and the Tairawhiti DHB respectively. Photo / File
The former Auckland DHB board chairman and Tairawhiti DHB commissioner said improving digital connectivity across the sector was vital for Northlanders who could end up travelling long distances needlessly.
"Provide as many [healthcare services] locally as you can but once it gets complex, make sure that you can get digital, real-time diagnoses from experts in the only place that can afford to have experts on all the time in Auckland," he said.
"Kaitaia [Hospital] should be able to digitally diagnose in Kaitaia and same in Whangārei. They're trying to do too much in Whangārei, they should do fewer things better."
Brown was a strong supporter of the review's recommendations regarding DHBs and their boards, advocating for the proposed reduction of DHBs in areas such as Auckland which had three.
Given Northland's geographic size, Brown speculated Northland was justified in having its own DHB.
Brown felt too much was being done at Whangārei Hospital (seen here) and health officials should utilise Auckland's experts through digital means. Photo / Tania Whyte
The review also recommended changing how a DHB board was constructed, advising members should be appointed rather than elected. On Northland's current DHB board, four members had been appointed by the Minister of Health, while the remaining seven were publicly elected.
Brown advocated for a fully appointed board with consideration of permanent positions for Māori and disability health advocates. However, he emphasised the importance of board members being transparent if board decisions affected any external income.
Current Northland DHB board chairman Harry Burkhardt said while he had not looked at the review in detail, it was a "step in the right direction".
"We've got to be thinking different and that's what the report talks about," he said.
"It's a start of a journey, the next step is to be able to get public input and then you've got to get political courage and leadership to implement it."
Northland District Health Board chairman Harry Burkhardt. Photo / Supplied
Burkhardt, from Kaitaia, assumed the role of chairman in December last year. He was previously on the Auckland DHB board from 2003 to 2010, three years of which as deputy chairman.
Despite the review's benefits, Burkhardt said it could have been braver with reference to Māori health, given criticisms from the Waitangi Tribunal last year that the roughly $220 billion spent on healthcare by the Government since 2000 hadn't significantly improved Māori health outcomes.
"There has been limited conversation for Māori to both identify what a solution looks like and actually invest in their own right.
"Those who have fewer choices to invest in their own wellbeing end up with not the best outcomes in the health perspective."
Whangārei Hospital. Photo / Tania Whyte
Addressing the proposed DHB reduction, Burkhardt said he was "agnostic" - uncertain whether less DHBs would improve the key purpose of delivering healthcare services to their communities.
As an appointed member of the NDHB board, Burkhardt was unsure about replacing elected members with appointed ones but emphasised the importance of a board's influence at a community level.
When asked if the NDHB board had enough Māori and disabled health representation, Burkhardt said "probably not".
Burkhardt agreed with Brown regarding digital accessibility and hoped Northland would soon see more specialised healthcare access at a local level.
"In a whole system approach, if you focus on the hubs, you miss the importance of the limited reach those systems have without the communities leading them well."
