Better Health South - Board Update June 2022

Pete Hodgson, Chair
Pete Hodgson, Chair

This is my last article as chair of the Southern District Health Board. On July 1 the Board disappears.

So what comes next?

You might like to drop into the website. It seeks to answer that very question. It is focused on the Southern district and invites you to have your say. In effect it is our advice to the new health system about what now needs to happen in our neck of the woods.

Take a look. Times of change and transition can be stressful and challenging but they are also times of opportunity. They are times when new ideas can replace historic patterns.

You will notice an emphasis on Māori leadership and health, and some suggestions on the new components called locality networks. The focus on prevention and primary care remains strong, but the new Dunedin hospital also features as does attention to workforce development. We exhort folk in all the layers of the new system not to hit the pause button but to stay focused on health outcomes and on the future.

We emphasise the value of close connectedness, between all the many players in our health system, and we restate the obvious, that care must be centred around the patient and whānau.

I hope these few remarks encourage you to want to find out more. We are keen to get feedback before we finalise our briefing to the new system. You know your community, or your corner of the health system, best.

I am sure the new health reforms will deliver a still better health system for us all.

Have your say on the future of healthcare in Southern by filling out this short survey: https://forms.office.com/r/kj1Kd0zj2T

 

Check out these other Better Health South Stories:
Time capsule filled as work on Outpatient Building starts
Nurse receives Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Give us your feedback
New mental health crisis respite care facility to open in Dunedin
Stay well this winter