It’s not surprising that concerns about our health and wellbeing are two of the leading issues I hear about as I meet people around the Shore.
COVID-19’s return has made many of us anxious about how New Zealand is dealing with the challenges we face today and the continuing threat that the virus poses to our communities. Leaking border security, testing laboratories that are under strain due to the unprecedented workload and bureaucracy that seems to struggle to achieve what’s needed are adding pressures to a health system that was already running at maximum.
These are all worries that weigh on us, and overlying these health concerns is the continuing economic drag on society that the Pandemic has caused.
That’s why, as someone who has worked at the most senior levels of Waitematā DHB and been on the frontline saving lives, I’m wholeheartedly endorsing the National Party’s belief that supporting our under-pressure health system is vital to fixing the economy. The most important lesson we’ve learnt from the return of COVID-19 is that there needs to be a robust, dependable health strategy in place before we can rebuild the economy – you cannot achieve one without the other.
When I returned to New Zealand from the UK in 2013, I followed a wish I’d had for a long time and took a Health Sciences degree allowing me to practice as a frontline ambulance officer with St John. It was a huge departure from my previous career in international finance, but I was doing what I loved. And when I was offered the chance to contribute to the management arena as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the DHB, I seized that opportunity. After working on ambulances and in the boardroom for three years, this is what I discovered:
Doing all you can to save someone’s life on the side of the road, and the following morning sitting in an office allocating budgets across a nearly $2 billion organisation brings remarkable clarity to both events: you absolutely understand the outcomes of your decision making. Whether you’re crouched over a patient or a spreadsheet – they’re both integral to the promise your DHB has made to the community. It’s no different at the national level; when decisions are made that put our border’s security at risk, it threatens the health and economic wellbeing of all of us.
It’s no use asking kiwis to shop local if there isn’t a workable plan to avoid more of these Lockdowns. Border security systems have to be rock-solid, our health professionals have to be supported, and we need our strongest team in place to get it done.
I’m proud to have played a part in the success of the Waitematā DHB. It was a privilege to work alongside some amazing doctors, nurses, allied health and healthcare workers, and I’m incredibly grateful for the enormous effort they have put in as the country battles COVID-19. They are doing their jobs diligently and selflessly to keep us all safe and well. Now it’s time for New Zealand to show our health system that we’re backing it with the resources necessary to keep doing the job.
