Hauraki health leader named as chief executive of new Māori Health Authority
Monday, 20 December 2021
The health boss behind a massive community testing and vaccination campaign in response to Covid-19 arriving in Coromandel has taken one of the country's top new health jobs.
Riana Manuel – a registered nurse and chief executive of a rural iwi-based health service provider in Hauraki – will lead the new Māori Health Authority, Te Mana Hauora Māori.
The role is a key one in a massive shakeup of the health sector by the Government aimed at reducing adverse outcomes for Māori.
Manuel has been on the ground in the Hauraki district during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading her team at Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki as they tested and vaccinated residents, including in the stressful opening days of the Delta outbreak in August.
She is currently manukura hauora (chief executive) of Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki, and also the Hauraki Primary Health Organisation.
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Manuel (Ngāti Pūkenga ki Manaia, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Kahungunu) was appointed chief executive of the new Māori Health Authority on Monday by Minister of Health Andrew Little and Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare.
She will start the role in February 2022, and will be based in South Auckland.
“This signals we’re a change-making agent for all of our people. If we’re going to affect equity – if we are truly going to demonstrate partnership – South Auckland is a great place to start,” Manuel said.
“This reform highlights partnership and has an equity focus and after 30 years in the health sector, those are extremely important to me. Ultimately if we get it right for Māori and Pasifika whānau, we’ll get it right for everybody.”
She said her first job will be getting the right team in place, “because no man or woman is an island”.
Manuel said her biggest learning experience has been how to make something big happen with very little.
“That’s going to be a mantra going forward, making sure we’re sharp, nimble and have the right thinkers around the table.
“Another lesson I learnt as a Māori provider is you get a lot further along when you work collectively and collaboratively. I’m not interested in building fences between us and everyone else. What I’m interested in is breaking down the fences or putting in really convenient gates that we all can open, ensuring we can get to what we need.”
She said her years working in Hauraki have been the great privilege of her career to date, “to serve my people that way”.
Aotearoa’s future health agencies, Health New Zealand and the Māori Health Authority, will become permanent entities on July 1, 2022.
Minister Little and Minister Henare also announced the chief executive of Health New Zealand on Monday – Fepulea’i Margie Apa.
Apa was the first Samoan to have been appointed chief executive of Counties Manukau District Health Board. She chairs the national DHB chief executives' forum, and has previous leadership experience at deputy director-general level at the Ministry of Health.
“Both chief executives have extensive experience and a wide range of skills that will be essential to creating a health system so people can get the healthcare they need no matter who they are or where they live,” Little said.
Henare said Apa and Manuel have strong connections to Māori and Pacific communities “that have been underserved by our health system, which will be essential to address the disproportionate health outcomes that have long affected our whānau”.
“Addressing inequity needs to be the responsibility of the entire health system, and we need to have these voices represented across all levels and organisations.”