Ian Powell: Health Commentator on the Government's appointment of Regional deputy CEOS

A health commentator isn't expecting new appointments at Health New Zealand to change much.  

The Government's appointed four Deputy Chief Executives to run different regions from next month.  

Ian Powell says if they come along with a change in culture, it could make a difference.  

He says there are bigger problems at Health NZ which need to be tackled.   

Powell says the leadership culture at the organisation is too top down when it comes to decision making. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And so the latest development on the health front is
the appointment of four regional CEOs basically will have specific
operations in Northern Midland, Central and the South Island. Motors
apparandi doesn't change, slim it down, move the middle management
out and save money. Health commentator empals with us Ean,
good morning to you, Good morning twenty three DHBs clearly
too many one apparently doesn't work do for.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think it would be wrong to see this as
dhb's coming back. I think it's within the same structure,
but it's an entenvor well so the rhetoric, so the
language goes to devolve a level of decision making closer
more regionally, but within the same structure. So it's not
bringing back district healthports. The question is is it going

(00:44):
to make a difference? And well, first response is far
too early to tell that. I had a discussion with
Shane Retti not long before the last election and we
talked about, rather than restructure and completely the new Health
New Zealand, that decision making be devolved within it. And

(01:10):
he's already been thinking about that quite seriously and he
was that's that's where he was thinking was going in
some respects it's the continuation of that. But there is
a real problem. Unless you change the culture, the leadership
culture of the whole organization, it's going to mean nothing because,
as you know, Mike, if he just simply changes structure
and that's all you do, you won't achieve the change

(01:34):
that you seek, the improvements that you're seeking. In fact,
it will go back.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
A couple of broad Bays questions for you, given your
experience in the sector, is roughly speaking, thirty billion, as
the Prime mister argues, enough. In other words, there is
enough money. It's what you do with the countsl.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I don't think I think that's wrong. I certainly believe
that we had much more of an engagement field culture,
and we had more direct involvement with people who actually
know how to do the job of delivering health care,
then we could probably get a better return for the
health dollar. But in the absence of that, it is

(02:08):
and that would take a bit of time. In the
absence of that, it's not enough. It's clearly per capita
the spending is dropping now and it's also not keeping
up with the demands on the health system, which is
that we have more sick of people needing healthcare and
more often and more of those people are very sick

(02:30):
rather than simply sick.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
And the other one right, The mixed message was the
board was incompetent. They couldn't see a thing, They didn't
answer the questions they needed to go true or not.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think they're superficial, very superficial analysis. So I think
that the boards did struggle, but the whole organization was struggling.
I think the board has been escape coated.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Can you see a fix? And I mean, god, how
many times? How many years have we been talking about
the dysfunction of health in New Zealand. Do you ever
see a day when you can come on and go
all things being equal, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, I'm a firm believer that if you don't have hope,
you have nothing, and you can't have strategies to address
the problem. Having said that, it is a very despairing situation. Look.
When National, sorry, the labor your dearth government came in
in twenty seventeen, they inherited a mess and their contribution

(03:23):
was to make that mess messier. When National came in,
they inherited even greater mess. And I have to say,
unfortunately they are more or less doing what labor did previously.
They're making a very messy situation messier.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Okay, so you and I will be talking for a
few more years yet an appreciate that very much impaled
health commentator these days elone. For more from the mic
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