Change brings opportunity as well as challenges

Julian Vyas | ASMS President

Kia ora ta -tou, I am proud to be the new President of Toi Mata Hauora/Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. It is a privilege to serve, and I shall carry out my duties to the very best of my ability.

I know my job will be made considerably easier by the talent and diligence of the National Office teams. Our industrial officers, policy and research, communications, and support services staff are committed to helping members. This means helping those who encounter workplace difficulties, as well as working for a better public health system. The team is led by our very own (and very able) Sarah Dalton. Without this care and professionalism, ASMS would not have the mana it enjoys from both the health and union sectors.

“A huge challenge for all of us in the next few years will be how the industrial and employment landscape will change when Health NZ becomes the sole employer.”

I am extremely lucky to be part of a National Executive that brings enthusiasm, experience, perception (and good humour!) to the twin duties of governance and strategy for ASMS. I must acknowledge just how indebted we are for the work done over the last three years by the outgoing Executive Board members. Murray Barclay (President), Julian Fuller (Vice-President) and Paul Wilson (National Secretary) have 40 years of Executive experience between them. Their knowledge, together with the support of the rest of the previous Executive, was invaluable in guiding the massive organisational change of the last three years, not least when Ian Powell retired, and Sarah took over as Executive Director. root and branch changes to the New Zealand health system with a strong emphasis placed on strengthening primary and community care. Doubtless there will be much discussion about these changes in the coming months. However, the prioritisation of community care has given me cause to reflect on what ‘community’ means for us as a union of dentists and doctors.

Our ASMS community continues to grow. Recent data shows we have 5,201 members: 4,937 working for DHBs, and 264 members working outside the DHB sector – in hospices, ACC, union health clinics, family planning, blood transfusion services, primary care, and the Ministry of Health. As a community, our interests are best served by cohesion and collaboration and by connection with one another, even though we work in different environments and clinical disciplines. A huge challenge for all of us in the next few years will be how the industrial and employment landscape will change when Health NZ becomes the sole employer. We must retain our union collectivism and community to ensure that dentists and doctors are able to practise effectively, safely, and equitably for all New Zealanders. Maintaining our community will not happen by magic. To guarantee this we must all share our thoughts, concerns, and also solutions, with one another, and with ASMS as an organisation. In this way, even as ASMS’ structure and function may evolve in response to health sector reforms, we can be confident we represent the best interests of all our members.

Therefore, I wish to issue a series of challenges: • To our National Executive (including myself): To use our motivation and skills to help maintain ASMS’ strategic vision

while the new health structure takes shape over the next few years. • To the National Office: The creation of a single employer and commissioning organisations means the current ways we engage and advocate for members will need to adapt. We will need to harness your energy and innovation to ensure local voices and needs are not lost in the day-to-day function of these new Leviathan-like bodies. • To ASMS members: More than ever we need you to keep us informed of what is happening in your place of work. A community can only exist with communication and mutual understanding between its members.

In the next few years, ASMS will need to know what members find useful and what we might do differently to better represent you. • To myself: To do my utmost to determine what is of most concern to members. To speak up for them whenever I can, and to remember the common goals that make us a community.

“Without this care and professionalism, ASMS would not have the mana it enjoys from both the health and union sectors.”

‘May you live in interesting times’ is an apocryphal curse. Our times have most certainly become ‘interesting’, but this should be seen as an opportunity for the ASMS community to coalesce and to strengthen; perhaps to an extent we have not needed to before.