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Speaker 1: Now, Health New Zealand Chief Executive, Margie Appa, has resigned.

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Speaker 1: Her tenure was meant to end in June, but she

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Speaker 1: says she wants to step down now to make space

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Speaker 1: for new leadership. Margie's relationship with Health Commissioner Lester Levy

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Speaker 1: was reportedly quite fraught, and at one point he directly

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Speaker 1: clashed with her over proposal to cut frontline staff. Health

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Speaker 1: New Zealand have declined to make anyone available for an

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Speaker 1: interview today. In Powell is a health commentator. Hi, end

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Speaker 1: thanks for your time.

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Speaker 2: It's a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think Margie is leaving early?

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Speaker 2: I think there was no other option. Really, the situation

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Speaker 2: has become untenable Health New Zealand largely through its own design,

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Speaker 2: or rather the design of the health restructuring that led

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Speaker 2: to its formation, which is very clumsy, very poor, but

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Speaker 2: also its leadership has got into a lot of them,

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Speaker 2: you know, has credibility within the health workforce and with

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Speaker 2: the wider public. And it also it is quite dysfunctional,

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Speaker 2: and now we have a commissioner that sees things quite differently,

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Speaker 2: or rather as attributing a lot of this to the

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Speaker 2: chief executive. Now some of that is justified, and some

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Speaker 2: of that is overstated, but nevertheless, he has bagged her

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Speaker 2: publicly and he's made it clear that she's willing. She's willing,

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Speaker 2: She's fine to apply for the position when it comes,

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Speaker 2: when it's being advertised at the moment, but she won't

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Speaker 2: get it.

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Speaker 1: Does the new Health Minister have anything to do with this?

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Speaker 1: Do you think?

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Speaker 2: Probably? I don't know, but probably not. I think this

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Speaker 2: has been shapping out to be to come to a

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Speaker 2: head like this before he was appointed.

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Speaker 1: Is there an obvious candidate to replace her.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's not immediately clear and I don't want to

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Speaker 2: comment on individuals. There will be Dale Bramley, who is

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Speaker 2: an experienced chief executive of DHB. He's a public health

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Speaker 2: specialist and he's been working for Health's innuty Photo Aura

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Speaker 2: since it's a creation in July twenty twenty two, as

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Speaker 2: a logical choice to be the acting chief executive. But

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Speaker 2: other than that, I think I don't want to think

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Speaker 2: second guess that too much. There will be a lot

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Speaker 2: of people on the health system who have a lot

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Speaker 2: of relevant experience who would not touch it with a

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Speaker 2: barge pole because of its it's poor reputation.

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Speaker 1: That's disappointing to hear. Isn't it Merging all the DHBs

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Speaker 1: into one was never going to be easy, was it?

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Speaker 1: In how would you rate Margie's tenure?

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Speaker 2: Then, Oh, that's a difficult question. I've known Margie Oupa

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Speaker 2: for a long time and I've had very high regards

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Speaker 2: for her. I've known her when she was in the

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Speaker 2: Minister Free of Health and towards the end of my

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Speaker 2: pome representing senior doctors. She became the chief executive for

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Speaker 2: Country's Monaco DHV and she was at least initially a

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Speaker 2: breath of freshier there. I think that she I thought

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Speaker 2: she was a good appointment, but I think she has

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Speaker 2: been over wonte whelmed by a poorly construct poorly constructed legislation,

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Speaker 2: and she has inherited a system that when you vertically

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Speaker 2: centralize on the way as this has been done, it

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Speaker 2: lends itself to a command and controlled culture. I was

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Speaker 2: hoping that she would be able to push back on that,

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Speaker 2: but she hasn't. That she's become part of it. So

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Speaker 2: I'm sad to say that she is not the cause

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Speaker 2: of Health New Zealand strife, but she has not been

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Speaker 2: part of a solution, and she has contributed to that

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Speaker 2: slight that strife in PAL.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time today. That was

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Speaker 1: in Pal Health Commentator. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks at B from four pm weekdays,

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