Signing off for 2022

Kia ora,

I hate to sound so clichéd, but it is hard not to at this time of year. I literally can’t write this end of year message without using the phrase ‘it’s been a massive year’.

As a network, we’ve continued to navigate a global pandemic while around us health system reform well and truly got underway. We’ve said goodbye to DHBs and hello to new entities, new legislation and a new health system interim plan.

Closer to home, we’ve said goodbye to our former chief executive Helen Parker, who is now enjoying life in France – and at this point we’ve not even been able to tease her about missing the great Kiwi Summer!

After keeping the seat warm as acting chief executive while Helen was on secondment, I was delighted to step into the role full time. And my welcome party – or baptism of fire? – was a cyber-attack! Many thanks to those who reached out with kind messages of support during that time, they really helped me and the team keep our chin up during long and challenging days.

So while the year wasn’t always conducive to major changes and improvements, we’ve got a good list of positives to celebrate!

• Together with Tū Ora Compass we launched Practice Plus, which is giving many of you a feeling of back up and confidence throughout the year but even more so in this holiday period.
• We’ve seen more community-based services emerge, including collaborations with community organisations.
• We are delighted to have the opportunity to play our part in two of the first nine locality prototypes selected by the new authorities to develop the policy and learning framework for planning and organising primary and community services.
• The access and choice mental health service continues to deliver meaningful change in three of our four districts.
• After a year of COVID cancellations and postponements we held a very successful nursing conference.
• Five new clinical dashboards developed by the Pinnacle data team are being used by an increasing number of practices in the network to help drive more equitable primary care services, with more in the pipeline.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all or you, from all of us at Pinnacle. You have worked tirelessly to maintain high-quality primary care services, and without that where would New Zealand be? With an election ahead 2023 is sure to be a very interesting time. We’ll continue to shine a light on the achievements and innovations of primary care.

The Pinnacle office will close to a skeleton staff on Friday 23 December and re-open on 9 January. I will be first point of contact during this time until 31 December, and then Jan Adams will be on deck while I take a break with my wife and kids. If you need to get in touch please reach our, our numbers are below.

Meri Kirihimete to you all and I hope you manage to get some well-earned rest with friends and whānau.

Ngā mihi,

Justin Butcher