Breadcrumbs

Making a difference in the Far North

18 September 2014

Lance O'Sullivan

New Zealander of the Year: Dr Lance O'Sullivan speaks at Kīngitanga Day at the University of Waikato.

New Zealander of the year Dr Lance O’Sullivan says it’s important that Māori youth have a pathway to leadership by design, not by chance.

Dr O'Sullivan was speaking to a capacity crowd at the University of Waikato 2014 Kīngitanga Day, which had leadership as its theme.

The Kaitaia-based doctor, and father of seven children, has implemented a range of health initiatives in the Far North that are helping to raise the standard of health care in remote communities.

Healthy to learn

“If education is the key to Māori success and getting people out of poverty, then we need to ensure they are healthy when they go to school,” he said.

Dr O'Sullivan was called a “half-caste” when he was growing up and found himself expelled from two high schools before attending Hata Petera College in Auckland, which ignited his dream to become a doctor. “The turning point was learning these really important aspects of who I was,” he said.

When he went into practice, he knew that the health system was failing the health needs of many Māori and so he set up more user-friendly processes for people in Kaitaia. “My consulting room can be anywhere, Pak ‘n’ Save, the main street, the local swimming pool… I love my job. Fifty percent is in the community, knowing and helping people when they need it.”

Drop-in clinic

The first thing Dr O'Sullivan did was have no morning appointments at his clinic. People could just drop in. “People want health care when they need it, not three days down the track,” he said.

He has also developed a Moko programme where 20 staff deliver culturally competent healthcare to 2000 people in clinics and 14 schools in the region three times a week.

In addition, people in the very remote Far North are being better served through technology. Dr O’Sullivan and his staff have trained volunteers in these communities to use digital medical equipment, to take temperatures, blood pressure, and weight, and use smart phones to take photos – all information that can be relayed back to qualified medical staff in Kaitaia. “We can make a diagnosis, give advice and have prescriptions delivered by rural post in 12 hours, which is a vast improvement on driving hundreds of kilometres there and back for an appointment.”

Scholarships for students in the north

Dr O'Sullivan has set up the Hawea Vercoe leadership scholarship for students in the Far North. Hawea Vercoe, a Waikato University alumnus died in 2009.

Dr O’Sullivan says he sees himself as an advocate, a quiet protester in the way he challenges colleagues and is challenging the health system. “I know I am making a difference, and what we’ve done in the Far North I know has potential elsewhere.”


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