About Us

Members

Patrick Snedden, Auckland

Patrick Snedden is a 52 year old Pakeha who began his professional life in publishing after graduating in 1979 from Auckland University in accounting, economics and anthropology. He has been self-employed since 1984 and acts as a business adviser for Health Care Aotearoa, a primary care network of Maori, Pacific Island and community groups within the not-for-profit health sector. Since 1982 he has worked as an economic adviser to the Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board and he is part of their Treaty negotiation team.

For many years he has been a corporate director and was a founding director of Mai FM, this country’s first Maori commercial radio station. He now has roles in public sector governance. Currently he chairs the Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Auckland District Health Board and is a director on Watercare Services, a wastewater and water company for Auckland. He is also deputy-Chair of the ASB Community Trusts, the region’s philanthropic trust.

In 2006 his new book, Pakeha and the Treaty, Why it’s our Treaty too won first prize in the first author, non-fiction section at the Montana Book Awards.

Photo of Alan Merry.

Alan Merry, Auckland

Alan Merry is Professor of Anaesthesiology, University of Auckland. He chairs the Quality and Safety Committee of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists. He is a Councillor of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, chairs the College’s Quality and Safety Committee. He has chaired its New Zealand National Committee, co-chaired the New Zealand Medical Law Reform Group, been president of the Auckland Medico-Legal Society, and founded Safer Sleep Ltd.
He is co-author of the books Errors, Medicine and the Law (with Alexander McCall Smith; Cambridge University Press, 2001), Essential Perioperative Transoesophageal Echocardiography (with David Sidebotham and Malcolm Legget; Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003), and Safety and Ethics in Healthcare – A Guide to Getting it Right (with Bill Runciman and Merrilyn Walton: Ashgate, 2007). His publications reflect interests in safety in anaesthesia, medico-legal concepts related to negligence, cardio-thoracic anaesthesia, and the management of postoperative and chronic pain.

Barbara Crawford, Hamilton

Barbara is the Quality and Clinical Risk Manager of Waikato District Health Board. She has a background in Geography (MA Otago) and Management Studies (Master of Management Studies Waikato), specialising in quality and strategic management.

Following 7 years in the education sector, she has had 13 years' experience in the health sector, 11 of those in her current role implementing effective quality and risk management systems and processes within and beyond Waikato DHB.

Barbara has provided strong leadership for quality improvement and risk management within the DHB, within the Midland region, and at the national level, including initiation and organisation of the First NZ National Conference on Managing Complaints in Healthcare 2002; first Chairperson of the DHB Quality and Risk Managers' Group; involvement in national working groups to revise the national patient satisfaction survey, develop the first national healthcare Quality Framework, and identify national clinical quality indicators.

Barbara is committed to applying international learnings to strengthen New Zealand's national and local mechanisms for improving quality in healthcare.

Photo of Barbara Greer.

Barbara Greer, Hokitika

Ko Tutoko te maunga
Ko Makaawhio te awa
Ko Uruao te waka
Ko Mamoe Ngai Tahu ratou
Ko Ngati Porou ko Ngati Apa nga iwi

I am a Life Member of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, a past Area Representative for Te Waipounamu, and was also a member of the Health Advisory Group at national level for the M.W.W.L. I have had extensive involvement, over forty plus years, in the health profession on the West Coast: being a registered psychiatric nurse, clinical supervisor and a lead Auditor under the IRCA Certification Scheme.

I hold a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Teaching, a Certificate in Alcohol and Drug Counselling, and am a full member of the NZ Association of Social Workers. Currently a member of the Community Public Health Advisory Group and a member of the NHI Consumer Advisory Group.

Since 1995 I have been working full time in Maori Health, as the Tumuaki (CEO) of Rata Te Awhina Trust, a kaupapa Maori Health and Social Service.
My paramount interest lies in improving the health status and outcomes for Maori in particular, and the wider community in general.

Dr. Nick Baker, Nelson

Nick Baker has been the General and Community Paediatrician in the Nelson area since 1993. In additions he is a senior lecturer on Community and Child Health for the University of Otago. Nick originally graduated in the United Kingdom and moved to New Zealand in the late eighties.

Nick has been a clinical adviser to the Ministry of Health and on a number of Technical Advisory groups and Committees. He is an active member of various professional groups including elected President of the Paediatric Society of New Zealand for two terms.

Nick’s professional areas of interest are preventive healthcare, child health policy and administrative structures, community involvement in health, training health professionals, developing educational resources for the general public, information technology, advocacy for children and youth, the impact of physical environments on health, paediatric infectious diseases, health service audit and strategy.

Catherine Rae, Dunedin

Catherine is the Quality and Risk Manager at the Otago District Health Board. She is responsible for the strategic leadership and implementation of quality improvement and risk management systems and processes. Catherine has 16 years experience in the health sector with a background in clinical record management. Prior to undertaking her current role in 2003, she held the role of Project Manager with responsibility for introducing the Quality Health NZ HAPNZ accreditation programme to the Otago DHB and for setting up quality and risk systems including the legislative compliance programme.

Catherine is the Chair of the National DHB Quality and Risk Managers Group and a member of the Quality Health NZ / DHB advisory group. She is a member of the Otago Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee and has been involved in several national working groups including the review of the Health & Disability Sector Standards.

Catherine is committed to improving quality in healthcare and patient safety by applying quality improvement practices, strengthening the consumer voice and promoting a culture that encourages the learning needed to improve systems and reduce medical error.

Photo of Cindy Farquhar.

Prof. Cynthia Farquhar, Auckland

Cynthia (Cindy) Farquhar, MB ChB MD MRCOG FRANZCOG CREI MPH is the Postgraduate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Auckland. She is also the Deputy Clinical Director of Gynaecology at National Women's at Auckland City Hospital since 2001. Cynthia is the coordinating editor of the Cochrane Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group since 1996. Her research interests include clinical trials within subfertility and menstrual disorders, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines. In 2000, Cynthia was a Harkness Fellow for the Commonwealth Fund and spent one year at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Washington, DC. Her clinical interests are polycystic ovarian syndrome, pelvic pain, endometriosis and the management of abnormal uterine bleeding. Cynthia has lead guideline development groups on heavy menstrual bleeding, uterine fibroids and the management of women with breech presentation and vaginal birth after caesarean section, as well as assisting with training in guideline development workshops in NZ. She is also the deputy chair of the board of the NZ Guidelines Group. (www.nzgg.org.nz).

Jean Hera, Palmerston North

Dr Hera is a community health worker/manager of the Palmerston North Women’s Health Collective and provides professional supervision to social and community workers. She has been involved in social work training for many years in a number of roles including tutor, fieldwork co-ordinator, fieldwork educator/supervisor and consultant supervisor. She is currently a public member of the Medical Council of New Zealand and a member of the Palmerston North Community Advisory Group of the Manawatu PHO.

Her over 20 years past and present involvement in community work and community development also includes the Manawatu Homebirth Association, the Palmerston North Women’s Homedeath Support Group, being a member of the Low Income Subcommittee of the Palmerston North City Council and core group member of the Federation of Women’s Health Councils Aotearoa New Zealand.

Photo of Jim Vause.

Dr. Jim Vause, Blenheim

GP since 1979 and a former President of the Royal NZ College of GPs, he is involved in GP quality initiatives nationally, workforce planning, and evidence based guideline development with NZGG

Judi Strid – Auckland

Judi Strid is the Director of Advocacy at the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC). She is the HDC representative on the committee to help provide a link between the work of HDC and QIC on quality improvement, championing consumer rights and strengthening consumer voice. Email: jstrid@hdc.org.nz

Photo of Mary Seddon.

Mary Seddon, Auckland

Mary Seddon is Clinical Director - Quality Improvement Unit, Counties Manukau DHB. She brings her perspective as an internal medicine specialist and a public health physician to this role, as well as the skills that she learned while at the Harvard Medical School and Institute for Healthcare Improvement, where she was placed as a Harkness Fellow. Her greatest challenge has been to address the punitive culture that is still part of the nursing and medical paradigms, and to encourage a culture of openness and safety. She is a member of a national group that is looking at improving the quality use of medicines in New Zealand, and regional groups that are planning the introduction of computerized physician order entry systems. She is also a senior lecturer at the Auckland School of Population Health, where she teaches both undergraduates and post- graduates in quality improvement theory and techniques. Her current research interests center on the validity and reliability of a rationing tool (Clinical Priority Assessment Criteria score) for access to coronary artery bypass surgery, and the utility of electronic patient data capture methods to improve explicit prioritisation processes.

Page last updated: 26 January 2009

Quality Improvement Committee