He was awarded Fellowship of the New Zealand Medical Association in 2011 for services to the profession and the public. This included working for the National Hauora Coalition and Procare Health and Homecare Medical. McElnay plans to spend the next six months travelling, according to a ministry email obtained by the Herald and written by deputy director general of population health Deborah Woodley. She went on to hold senior leadership roles within ACC, and then in ESR as General Manager People and Communications, before joining Manat Hauora as the Group Manager People and Capability. This website is intended for a NZ health professional readership. Salary: NZ$68,467 Patient Counseling Avg. Sir Ashley Robin Bloomfield KNZM (born March 1966) is a New Zealand public health official. She is currently a commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Health Systems and Cancer, a member of the International Advisory Committee to Lancet Oncology, a member of the Board of the International Cancer Benchmarking Programme (ICBP), and a member of the Advisory Committee to the International Agency for Research on Cancers (IARC) Pacific cancer hub. It inherited the functions of the former Health Promotion Agency including public health and population health policy, strategy, regulatory, intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring. [9][3][12] Since he started as the ministry's Chief Executive he has attended a leadership programme at Sad Business School at the University of Oxford. Dr Sarfati has held a number of national and international roles. [8], Bloomfield graduated Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Auckland in 1990. . Last weekend, the Director-General announced that the country should not expect to ever return to Alert Level 1 the way it used to be. Diana was previously Tumuaki, Chief Executive & National Director of Te Aho o Te Kahu - Cancer Control Agency and prior to that shewas National Director of Cancer Control at the Ministry of Health where she oversaw the implementation of the agency. Find out more about how we operate on the Our Structure page of this website. The departures of Bloomfield, McElnay, and Stefanogiannis raise questions about what impact their vacancies will have in a pandemic that shows no sign of ending, with possible resurgences in cases in coming months, including over winter, and new variants inevitably arriving here. Former minister Peter Dunne says Judith Collins personalised attacks and Nationals ineffectiveness over the Covid response make it hard to take the Opposition party seriously. [20] Facebook pages and merchandise have been created celebrating Bloomfield, and at least one person has had his image tattooed on their body. The fact that there has been no official rejection of his comment suggests it is in fact government policy, so he was either making public something that had already been decided but not yet announced, or, worse, that he was telling the nation and the government at the same time what he expected to be the case. A new director of public health has been announced by the Ministry of Health. Prior to this, he has held a series of senior public health leadership roles. ", "Bird flu campaign to target 1.4m households", "Dr Ashley Bloomfield: Director-General of Health and Chief Executive", "The extremely competent, somewhat boring civil servant who has New Zealanders' hearts aflutter", "Geoffrey Palmer: Hallelujah! The estimated total pay for a Director of Public Health is $96,248 per year in the United States area, with an average salary of $78,374 per year. Dr Sarfati has a PhD from the University of Otago, is a NZ College of Public Health Medicine Fellow and until 2008 was a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine. The giant hole being left by Ashley Bloomfield at the top of the Ministry of Health is getting larger, with two top public health leaders also leaving this week. The Prime Ministers recent admission that the Director-General attends Cabinet meetings when Covid-19 is being discussed reinforces the worrying reality that the Director-General is now no longer an impartial public servant, but an unelected quasi-minister participating in the Cabinets decision-making in a way that no public servant previously has ever been allowed to do, no matter the crisis at hand, or which party has been in government. This article, written by David Codyre, Ainsleigh Cribb-Sua and David Todd, outlines progress in rollout, challenges faced and what is being learnt, Health priorities of older adults often include longevity, however health outcomes such as quality of life and independence are often considered to be as important or more important than a long life. With whnau whakapapa to Tikitiki in Tairawhiti, Peter is committed to achieving health equity for Mori and other priority populations. As the chief steward for the health system, the Ministry will continue to set the strategic direction for health and will be responsible for developing national policy, regulation and monitoring. His entire life had been dedicated to the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders . Nicola Hill will act as Chief Executive of the Cancer Control Agency while Dr Sarfati is acting Director-General of Health. *See Pacific Health regional structure under Regional Leadership below. Margie has a BCom from University of Auckland and an MPA (Exec) from Victoria University of Wellington. He has held DHB lead Chief Executive roles in Primary Care and Public Health. One of the more interesting aspects of the course of the Covid-19 pandemic in New Zealand since March 2020 has been the development of the role of the Director-General of Health. Like all departmental chief executives, the Director-Generals primary responsibility is to the minister, in this case the Minister of Health. Interim Director, Outbreak Response - Matt Hannant. Renewed council efforts to control Otagos most notorious pest are not equal to the task of keeping rabbit numbers down a review has found. The ministry is also having farewells this week for. For three years, 2006-2009, she was Regional Director of Training at the Australasian College of Public Health Medicine. [3], Bloomfield completed several years of clinical work and from 1996[10] specialised in public health medicine,[11] concentrating on non-communicable diseases. Salary: NZ$67,497 Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) Avg. He is a proud generalist, enjoying the challenge of the variety of presentations that are seen in primary care. Avg. You can capture your thoughts, and the time to Read, Watch, Listen or Delve, against your account but first you'll need to be logged in. Prior to this Dr Sarfati was National Director of Cancer Control at the Ministry of Health to oversee the implementation of the agency. She has worked hard to ensure a collaborative effort across the public health system and in particular, she has supported our public health units to achieve new ways of working at a systems level.". I specialised as a Public Health Medicine Physician after completing my Masters of Public Health through the University of Otago. [1] She was the director of public health for the New Zealand Ministry of Health from 2016 to 2022, and chaired the Pandemic Influenza Technical Advisory Group, which advises the Ministry on matters concerning the control of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. Joe has worked in Te Puke since 2003 and is a practising GP, working in an inter-disciplinary team at Poutiri Wellness Centre, a kaupapa Moripractice. (2014). Key roles and responsibilities: Digital transformation. From 2015 to 2018, Bloomfield was chief executive at Hutt Valley District Health Board. Dr Bramley has held a number of senior roles across the health system over the years, including being a member of the national health committee, national ethics committee and most recently a member of the ministerial review committee for continuous improvement for the COVID-19 response. He will bring together the 12 existing public . She comes from a clinical background, beginning her experience with nursing and has worked in frontline mental health services and leadership roles in District Health Boards. As lead for Performance Improvement, she was instrumental in delivering new equity approaches within planned care delivery in Auckland. The Governments first focus throughout the pandemic has been political choreography, not the public health response, writes Peter Dunne. [7], McElnay later moved with her husband to Napier in 1995. [6], In the 2023 New Year Honours, McElnay was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order, for services to public health. Head of WHO Office. McElnay, whose last day is tomorrow and whose resignation was announced to ministry staff in February, has regularly fronted press conferences throughout the pandemic, usually when Bloomfield has been away. This was a major policy announcement that, if it is in fact government policy, should have come from either the Prime Minister or the Minister of Health, not a public servant. Jeremy started his career as a Royal Engineer officer in the in the British Army where he held a variety of leadership roles delivering critical infrastructure and large-scale construction programmes on deployed operations and across the defence estate. The Director-General of Health is a pivotal role leading a sector critical to the overall wellbeing of New Zealanders. There may be those who would say that the exigencies of the Covid-19 response have been such that it is pedantic and unrealistic to expect normal conventions to apply during such a time, when the focus should be on getting things done, rather than how they are done. Fionnagh is a Member of the Health Roundtable and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Andrew is a public health physician and previously held positions as Associate Chief Medical Officer for Waitemat District Health Board (DHB), and as Clinical Director, Health Gain for Auckland and Waitemat DHBs. He looks forward to building a strong and effective team to strengthen and nationalise our public health services. With the Government having decided in the middle of the pandemic to completely upend the organisation of the public health system over the next two to three years, and the current mounting crisis regarding the availability of intensive care beds, it would not be unreasonable to expect the Director-General to be at the centre of all those issues, but there currently seems to be a vacuum of official leadership or even interest in these matters. Reintegrating him back into the normal role of a normal chief executive will be a delicate task. She advocated for health equity in the region and in 2014 she published a major report on the subject. He has specialist qualifications in Medical Administration and General Practice. Joe is a Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practice, and also has a Master of Public Health (Health System Management).