Health NZ board sacked: Here’s 8 priorities for new commissioner Lester Levy - Dr Richard Frith

Former Health New Zealand Chair Rob Campbell on Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking Breakfast. Video / Newstalk ZB

THREE KEY FACTS:

Dr Richard Frith is a semi-retired neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist in Auckland. He has held clinical leadership roles in healthcare in New Zealand and Australia.

OPINION

The appointment of Professor Lester Levy as commissioner in place of the Health NZ board should bring joy to the hearts of all of us who have been concerned about the direction the centralised health service has been taking in the past few years.

In this sort of situation a “benign dictator” is much more likely to be successful than a disparate group of board members with different levels of experience, agendas, and political leanings.

I have known Lester Levy for more than 40 years. While he has some detractors, he is intelligent, competent, a great leader, and has managed major change at hospital and district level in the past. He has also been successful in his other business and academic ventures.

I think if he has the appropriate level of support he will have the ability to turn Health NZ around. This will be a mammoth task, considering the organisational and financial mess Health NZ is in. Hopefully, he has the fortitude, and the political backing, to achieve success.

Since writing on this topic 15 months ago, I have not seen any significant progress in any of the nine areas I suggested might be addressed.

Professor Lester Levy is now the sole commissioner governing Health NZ for the next year. Photo / Dean Purcell

To support these - enhancing primary care, rationalising access to secondary and tertiary healthcare, rationalising tertiary and quaternary healthcare provision, addressing clinical workforce issues, central procurement of equipment and medical supplies, a single national electronic clinical record system, reduction in duplication in non-clinical areas, and clinical input into decision-making at all levels - will require several changes.

There will be many challenges ahead, and, without doubt, there will be some missteps, but with political will and leadership strength, we might start to achieve a healthcare service of which we can all be proud.