David Unwin / Stuff
Kathryn Cook, outgoing CEO of the MidCentral District Health Council, is confident that the council’s best work in the reformed health services will flourish.
MidCentral District Health Council’s latest chief executive, Kathryn Cook, arrived in Palmerston North seven years ago with a brave ambition: To build a hospital of the future that the community can be proud of.
But health care reforms have moved faster than the builders.
Cook’s term of office ended at midnight on Thursday 30 June with the abolition of New Zealand’s 20 elected and appointed district health councils, and the first day of business for Health New Zealand on 1 July.
When she left, there were contactors on the surgical service floor, others in front of the hospital building extensions to the overcrowded emergency department, and the call was out for tenderers to build a new mental health ward.
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The case for a brand new block for emergency services has at least penetrated the government’s list of the top four priorities for hospital investments.
“In the end, these things always take longer than we would like. And Covid-19 was a real challenge that inevitably took our attention and time to different areas.
SUPPLY
Building materials for the improvements to Palmerston North Hospital’s floor for surgical services were lifted on May 26 by crane.
Cook said she felt “really proud” of the planning work that went into the design of a new hospital, with the $ 33 million Spire renovation, and the ED extensions, which are recognized as medium-term improvements.
She said the mental health unit is going to be a great place for people to heal, its whole design has been improved by taking time to go back to the basics with Rangitāne to include tikanga Māori in its layout and materials.
Cook arrived in Palmerston North in 2015 after working in health for more than 40 years.
She started as a student nurse in Wellington in 1978, and has spent much of her career managing a range of public health services in Australia.
She was especially welcomed on her arrival by then-council chairman Phil Sunderland, who died suddenly the following year, a few days after he was handed over for the chairmanship.
Cook said it was the low point of her time in the top job.
“I was absolutely devastated.”
He was succeeded as chairman by Dot McKinnon, and later, Brendan Duffy, both of whom Cook described as wonderful people who offered her great support.
WARWICK SMITH / Stuff
Kathryn Cook, outgoing CEO of MidCentral, looks back.
One of the early changes Cook made was a reconsideration of the board’s management and service structures to create six groups headed by clinical and operational managers.
She said although most DHBs stuck to a separation between hospital and community health services, the latter contracted through its funding department, MidCentral integrated the two.
Cook said mental health and addictions are one area where the broader view has begun to pay dividends.
Although much attention has been given to the physical acute mental health department, management has looked more holistically at the continuum of care to help people get treatment earlier, avoid admissions, and facilitate discharge back to the community.
“Too many people end up in acute mental health care because they have no other choice.”
A retirement unit was set up in Gray St, a walk-in unit was on its way to Horowhenua, and the new Safe Haven cafe in Featherston St provided an alternative after-hours place for people who would otherwise go to ED in mental health went. distress.
Cook said the integrated approach across six key health services would assist MidCentral well in adapting to the approaches preferred by the incoming Health NZ board.
The other thing she believed MidCentral did well was its location planning, after working in each geographic area to identify needs and gaps in services and start implementing remedies.
Horowhenua was an example, chosen as one of the pilot sites for the Health NZ approach, building on solid iwi relationships already in place to address Māori health inequalities.
The whole organization renewed its determination to tackle the problem of poorer health outcomes for Māori, with an equality leader in each group of services.
There are currently no major career plans on Cook’s horizon. She said she would take time to reflect and to spend more time with husband Rob Cook and family and grandchildren in Wellington and Australia.