Health workers in Aotearoa New Zealand are thanking Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield for his work stopping the ailing health system from collapsing in the covid-19 pandemic — and for saving lives.

They say they can relate to him needing a rest.

Dr Bloomfield leaves his job in July, stepping down 12 months early after the huge stress of the past two years.

There are few public servants who have had the same degree of fame.

For two years he has been a regular in the living rooms of the country, particularly in the first lockdown when almost everyone was home turning in every day to hear news of the covid-19 threat.

Emergency doctor and chair of the Council of Medical Colleges Dr John Bonning said Dr Bloomfield had to step up to communicate with the public in a role that would normally have been done by politicians.

He exuded trust and had stellar public health credentials, as a medical doctor who had worked for the World Health Organisation and headed a district health board (DHB), Dr Bonning said.

Engaged and communicated
He engaged and communicated very regularly with health worker groups.

“He felt the pain, he felt the pressure along with the rest of us,” he said.

Frontline GP and chair of the Pacific GP Network Api Talemaitoga said the country was lucky to have a director-general with top public health skills when they were needed most.

That meant Dr Bloomfield understood the practicalities of what had to be done — like limiting numbers, mass masking, vaccination programmes and the importance of communication, he said.

Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said Dr Bloomfield’s advice had been at the heart of the government’s decision making and he “had saved thousands if not tens of thousands of lives”.

But not everything was perfect under his tenure. There was a blunder that meant high-risk border workers were not being routinely tested as promised, criticisms about spread in MIQ facilities, delays at times over testing, and a slow vaccine rollout for Māori.

Delays over Māori health autonomy
Te Whānau O Waiapareira chief executive John Tamihere said the director-general had done a decent job but he was uncomfortable with the “idolatry” that had sprung up around him.

He had called Dr Bloomfield out over the past two years on issues like the delays giving Māori health groups autonomy to look after their communities, and of the ministry’s initial failure to hand over health data.

It would be mean-spirited to criticise Dr Bloomfield on his way out, he said.

He was a highly-paid public servant who had done a decent job, particularly for mainstream New Zealand, but his copybook was not completely clean, Tamihere said.

“But … Dr Bloomfield will go down as leading a great result when compared with other nations,” he said.

Pacific health groups had shared the concerns about not initially being able to lead the response for their communities, who bore the brunt of early waves of the virus.

Privy to the big picture
GP Dr Api Talemaitoga said while that was frustrating, he and his colleagues on the frontline were not always privy to the big picture Dr Bloomfield was dealing with “in terms of the whole country, the ministry, and his political masters”.

Senior emergency doctor Dr Kate Allan represents the College of Emergency Medicine and said Dr Bloomfield inherited a “broken health system” but led a response that stopped it from collapsing under the weight of covid-19.

“I take my hat off to him. I think it’s been an amazing job and an incredibly difficult job and I can’t imagine how tired he must be,” she said.

Dr Bloomfield is, in turn, quick to credit people like Dr Allan who worked on the frontline to battle the virus.

‘Relentless’
The director-general of health was one of three top health chiefs to announce their resignations yesterday.

Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay and Deputy Director of Public Health Niki Stefanogiannis are also leaving the ministry.

Health Minister Andrew Little told RNZ Morning Report they had been at the forefront of the covid-19 response and had worked tirelessly. “As Ashley said to me in the weekend, he is just exhausted.”

Thousands of front line health workers had done a phenomenal job and would be feeling the same after two years of the pandemic, he said.

There was still work to be done in terms of the rebuild and the nationwide health restructure “because we’ve got to create that extra capacity.”

“I am committed to filling the gaps that are there.”

‘Saved thousands of lives’
Epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson said the key leadership group including Dr Bloomfield, the prime minister, senior ministers and others “saved thousands of lives, it saved our health services”.

“The work that they did over the past couple of years, it’s just relentless.” Jackson said. “I’m amazed that they lasted so long.”

All three were there at the most important stage but it was “a bit worrying” they were leaving. “The next phase is going to be messy, it’s going to be more political.”

However, New Zealand had “fantastic” vaccines and the knowledge on how to slow down and contain a pandemic.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

How could I do justice to all of it?

Do I write about the history? Do I write about the stories people are telling about him? Do I write about his band of brothers who helped him in the early years?

Sir Michael was, himself,  a storyteller.

Narratives woven into relationships
He didn’t just tell stories with words.  The narratives were woven into his existence and in the relationships he built throughout his life.  From them, came  the stories that have been given new life with his passing.

I went to speak to Sir Pita Lus, his closest friend and the man who, in Papua New Guinean terms, carried the spear ahead of the Chief.  He encouraged Michael Somare to run for office.

He told me about the old days about how he had told his very reluctant friend that he would be Prime Minister.  In Drekikir,  Sir Pita Lus told his constituents that his friend Michael Somare would run for East Sepik Regional.

Sir Pita Lus and his relationship with Sir Michael is a chapter that hasn’t yet been written.  It needs to be written.  It is up to some young proud Papua New Guinean to write about this colorful old fella.

A chief builds alliances. But what are alliances? They are relationships. How are they transmitted? Through stories.  Sir Michael built alliances from which stories were told.

When I went to the  provincial haus krai in Wewak, there were  huge piles of food. I have never seen so much food in my life.  Island communities of Mushu, Kadowar and Wewak brought bananas, saksak and pigs in honor of the grand chief.  They also have their stories to tell about Sir Michael.

The Mapriks came. Ambunti-Drekikir brought huge yams, pigs and two large crocodiles.  The Morobeans, the Manus, the Tolais, West Sepik, the Centrals.

In Port Moresby, people came from the 22 provinces …  From  Bougainville, the Highlands, West Sepik and West Papua.

In Fiji, Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama sent his condolences as he read a eulogy. In Vanuatu, Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) members held a special service in honour of Sir Michael.  In Australia, parliamentarians stood in honour of Sir Michael Somare.

Followed to his resting place
Our people followed the Grand Chief to his resting place. The Madangs came on a boat. Others walked for days just to get to Wewak in time for the burial.

How did one man do that?  How did he unite 800 nations?  Because that is what we are. Each with our own language and our own system of government that existed for 60,000 years.

Here was a man who said, “this is how we should go now and we need to unite and move forward”.

In generations past, what have our people looked for? How is one deemed worthy of a chieftaincy?

I said to someone today that the value of a chief lies in his ability to fight for his people, to maintain peace and to unite everyone. In many of our cultures, a chief has to demonstrate a set of skills above and beyond the rest.

He must be willing to sacrifice his life and dedicate himself to that  calling of leadership. He must have patience and the ability to forgive.

The value of the chief is seen both during his life and upon his passing when people come from all over to pay tribute.

For me, Sir Michael Somare, leaves wisdom and guidance – A part of it written into the Constitution and the National Goals and Directive Principles. For the other part, he showed us where to look.  It is found in our languages and in the wisdom of our ancestors held by our elders.

Asia Pacific Report republishes articles from Lae-based Papua New Guinean television journalist Scott Waide’s blog, My Land, My Country, with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The youngest daughter of the Somare family Dulciana Somare-Brash told mourners the state funeral for Papua New Guinea’s Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare was a bittersweet occasion for her family.

“Today is a bittersweet day for my family, we come here to farewell our patriarch, our protector, and our human shield in a place where he stood to raise our flag [for independence] all those years ago for our new nation,” she said at Friday’s state funeral.

“It was here that he made his mark on this land, a land with plenty, beaming with resources that require our care now.

“Late yesterday [Thursday] afternoon I watched my father the great Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare leave Parliament for the last time.

“From 1982 when the Australian gifted that House, he would proudly walk proudly through its doors.

“Yesterday he was carried into the chamber and as he lay in state I fought back tears, that he had dreamt, then felt, then he had left for us to complete.

“I wept bittersweet tears for all that he had left behind and all that he had abruptly left for us to do. Yesterday was a hard day sitting in Parliament, a building so familiar to me and my mother and my siblings.

‘Wonderful tributes’
“I heard wonderful tributes from my father’s peers, papa [Sir Julius] Chan spoke of a lifelong friendship, and papa [Paias] Wingti lamented over a mentor and friend he treasured.

“Prime Minister James Marape referred to my father as a bulldozer yesterday which makes perfect sense actually as we’ve always joked that our mother [Lady Veronica] was the handbrake without ever referring to our father as a bulldozer.”

The state funeral was held at the Sir Hubert Murray stadium in Port Moresby yesterday.

Today, the body of the Grand Chief will be flown to East Sepik ahead of his burial at his property in Wewak.

Thousands of people have converged on both Port Moresby and Wewak for the respective services to pay respects to Sir Michael, reports RNZ Pacific.

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz