The new Māori Health Leadership team have taken up their new roles at Southern DHB and WellSouth, focusing on improving Māori health status and outcomes across the Southern Health System.
The team is led by Gilbert Taurua, Chief Māori Health Strategy and Improvement Officer, who comes to the newly created role from New Zealand Drug Foundation where he has been the principal adviser, Tautāwhihia Kaua e whiu. Working alongside Mr Taurua are Nancy Todd, taking up the role as Associate Māori Health Officer, Secondary/Tertiary – and Peter Ellison, the new Associate Māori Health Officer, Primary and Community, based at WellSouth PHO.
“We’ll work collaboratively with our colleagues to support service improvement and planning, and to make our waka go faster,” says Mr Taurua. “We’ll support and guide the implementation of the primary and community strategy, ensuring health care services, whether in the hospital or in the community, are delivered in a timely and appropriate way for Māori.”
The team will work to reduce disparity, including in areas such as smoking cessation, diabetes prevention and treatment, and oral health, Mr Taurua says.
The Māori Health leadership team has been co-appointed by the DHB and WellSouth Primary Health Network to lead a whole of system approach to raising Māori health and well-being across our district.
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