From Te Whare Paremata:
Dame Karen Poutasi has been appointed as the new Board Chair for Te Whatu Ora Minister of Health Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today.
The high profile position became available after the sacking of former Chair Rob Campbell in February this year.
Poutasi also comes into the role after a week of National and ACT parties’, haranguing of hospital’s use of an equity assessment tool which prioritises surgery waitlists.
The ‘Equity Adjuster’ tool was introduced to some hospitals in Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Tai Tokerau earlier this year. It uses an algorithm to rank people who have been waiting for surgery for more than two years. It uses five criteria including clinical priority; time already spent on waitlist; rural isolation; deprivation level; and ethnicity. But opposition parties National and ACT chose to concentrate and criticise ethnicity criterial only.
Dame Karen, who is a medically trained doctor, has significant governance and leadership experience in the public health and education sectors.
She was previously the Commissioner of Waikato District Health Board and Chair of the COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Governance Group. Dame Karen’s previous executive positions have included Chief Executive of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and Director-General of Health and Chief Executive, Ministry of Health.
Rob Campbell was sacked for comments he made on social media about the National Party’s Three Waters policy. Rules for public service leaders say they should maintain political impartiality.
Dame Karen commences in the role from 1 July 2023.
