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Made in New Zealand - NZ Medical Students' Association Conference08
It's a privilege and a pleasure to open the 3rd national medical
students' conference. I had the opportunity to speak at the 2006
conference, and it was a fantastic event. I'm sure that this years'
conference will also be a great success. I love the theme of "Made
in New Zealand". Although overseas-trained doctors make a major
contribution to our current medical workforce, we need to continue
to produce locally trained doctors - in part because you bring a
unique understanding of life and culture in Aotearoa, but also
because we are competing in an international market and we can't
simply rely on importing doctors from overseas.
There is a distinctly Kiwi flavour
to the four conference themes: Number 8 wire - innovation, research
and technology in NZ; Kiwis can fly - global health from an NZ
perspective; No place like home - health, systems and community in
NZ; and New Zealand made - NZ students, doctors, and careers.
At the 2006 conference, I spoke on
leadership in medicine, and singled out 3 Kiwis and 1 Aussie
doctor.
Dr Maui Pomare was the first Maori
medical graduate (he graduated MD in 1900 from the American
Missionary College in Chicago), the first Maori health officer, an
influential figure in improving Maori health in the early 20th
Century, and later the first and only medically qualified Minister
of Health (1923-26). He's a great example of a homegrown leader who
devoted his life to improving public health and the health system
in New Zealand.
In this room there are current and
future leaders of medicine in New Zealand. We face major challenges
to improve the gaps in health outcomes for Maori and Pacific Island
people. I salute a leader like young Maori Dr Lance O'Sullivan, who
has returned to his home in the Far North to work as a GP with Te
Hauora O Te Hiku O Te Ika, driving the dusty roads of Tai Tokerau
to deliver marae-based health care, with a vision of providing his
people with gold-standard medicine delivered in a way that embraces
tikanga Maori.
Dr George Downward is an intensive
care doctor who is also Medical Director of Patient Safety at
Canterbury DHB, and a former President of NZMA. George has
challenged the medical profession to be brave and to tackle
healthcare induced harm, and is leading by example at Christchurch
Hospital. He's spent time at the world-leading Institute of Health
Improvement in Boston. George is a "made in New Zealand" doctor who
knows about "Number 8 wire" - how to apply the best innovation,
research and technology from abroad to make our healthcare safer
for our patients. Today George and I have been at the "Improving
Quality Sector Forum" in the Wellington Town Hall looking at a
national campaign to see how New Zealand can save 1,000 lives.
One of the Conference08 themes is
focuses on global health. Even though in my job I focus on the
areas for improvement in our health system, I know that we are
richly blessed compared with other parts of the world. There are
major challenges in the Pacific, in Asia, and in Africa, where New
Zealand doctors can serve people suffering a level of poverty,
disease and starvation that is difficult to imagine. We need
medical "missionaries" to be global health workers. If you want to
be inspired about how you can use your training to work abroad,
read Catherine Hamlin's biography The Hospital by the River, the
story of her and her New Zealand-born husband Reg's lifetime of
work and service in surgical repair of fistula in Ethiopia
women.
You are at an early stage of your
journey as a doctor. In coming to this conference, you have
signalled an interest in being a leader in medicine. My challenge
to you as future leaders of medicine in New Zealand is first, to
learn how to be a good doctor; and secondly, if you want to be a
leader, learn how to be a servant leader, using your medical and
leadership skills in the service of your patients and the
community.
In closing, let me leave you with
some final thoughts from Atul Gawande in his book Better: A
Surgeon's Notes on Performance.
In the book's last chapter, Gawande
challenges doctors to become "a Positive Deviant". He makes five
practical suggestions.
1. Ask an
unscripted question - make a human connection.
2. Don't complain
- Gawande observes that "wherever doctors gather…the natural pull
of conversational gravity is towards the litany of woes all around
us. … Resist it. It's boring, it doesn't solve anything and it will
get you down".
3. Count
something - Medicine is a science. It doesn't really matter
what you count. … The only requirement is that what you count
should be interesting to you. … If you count something you find
interesting, you will learn something interesting".
4. Write
something - Writing lets you step back and think through a
problem.
5. Change - Don't
be another white-coated cog in the machine. Find something new to
try, something to change.
I wish you all the best for a great
conference this weekend.
Kia Kaha!
Ron Paterson
Health and Disability Commissioner