PHANZ nationwide roadtrip for Public Health

See full details here: PHANZ Announcement and Itinerary 2021

The Public Health Association of New Zealand is pleased to announce the recipients of the PHANZ Public Health Awards 2020 as follows:

Public Health Award 2020: Professor Michael Baker

Tū Rangatira mō te Ora Award 2020: Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes

New Pasifika award 2020: Dr El-Shadan (Dan)Taulolo

PHANZ Policy Position on Institutional Racism for Ratification at AGM 2020

Cannabis Position and Policy Position 2020

2020 Public Health Champion Awards

The Public Health Association is pleased to invite nominations for this year's Public Health Champion Awards.

Public Health Champion Award

The purpose of the PHA's Public Health Champion Award is to recognise and profile the outstanding contribution by an individual to public health.

Tū Rangatira mō te Ora award

The Award is presented annually to a person or roōpu who demonstrate leadership in hauora Māori.

Pacific Public Health Champion award

The purpose of the PHA's Pasifika Public Health Champion Award is to recognise and profile the outstanding contribution by an individual or group to improve the health of Pasifika peoples.

Important dates for the three awards:

Nominations open Tuesday 10th November, 2020.

Nominations close Friday 20th November, 2020 at 5pm.

Recipients notified by Friday 27th November, 2020.

Awards announced at the PHANZ AGM 2nd December, 2020

For more information on the criteria and nomimation form please click here

We are pleased to announce that the following nominations received for the vacancies on the PHANZ board are now declared elected as per 11.1 of the PHANZ Election bylaw, and will commence their tenure at the PHANZ AGM Dec 2nd 2020. 

11. WHERE VACANCIES EXCEED NUMBER OF CANDIDATES
11.1 If the number of candidates nominated does not exceed the number of vacancies to be filled, the Returning Officer shall declare the candidate or candidates nominated elected.

Maxine Shortland (President)**Should  proposed remit 1  be ratified at the PHANZ AGM Dec 2nd 2020 then this position will become entrenched in our constitution as a Co-President in Te Tiriti based partnership with the Co-President Māori.  The change would occur at the 2021 AGM with interim arrangements made toward that end by the incoming council.
Toni Paterson (General Executive)  
Jalal Mohammed (General Executive) 
Gail Duncan (General Executive) 

We welcome our new executives to the team, for bios click here

PHANZ nominations for the executive elections are now open. For more information about how you can nominate for the current vacant positions and elections deadlines click here. Please note nominations must come from branches and not individuals

PHANZ AGM 2020 will take place on Wednesday 2nd 2020. Find out more details here

Budget 2020 must tackle climate crisis say health organisations

3 May 2020

Leading NZ health professional organisations have written to the Government asking them to prioritise Budget 2020 funding for a just transition to a climate-resilient, sustainable and low-emissions economy.

The letter, led by OraTaiao: NZ Climate & Health Council, was sent to the Minister and Associate Ministers of Finance on Sunday 3 May, and urges the Government to heed health advice that has for many years been warning of the serious health threat posed by the climate crisis.

Signatories to the letter represent more than 70,000 of the health professionals who have been on the frontline of responding to the pandemic. They include all the major health professional organisations representing nurses, clinical and public health doctors, public health workers and a wide range of other health professionals.

“Government spending must do triple duty – by equitably supporting economic wellbeing, addressing climate change, and improving people’s health,” said Dr Alex Macmillan, Co-convenor of OraTaiao: NZ Climate & Health Council.

“An example is investing in transport infrastructure that makes it easy and safe for people to walk, bike and use a wheelchair to get around, which can create jobs, address climate change, increase physical exercise, reduce traffic crashes and lower healthcare costs. Investments in housing, energy and food systems can also create jobs, address climate change, reduce inequalities and bring health savings.”

“Doing these things fairly means they must be grounded in the Articles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, designed in partnership with local communities, and ensure that benefits accrue to the groups currently most harmed by injustice,” says Dr Macmillan.

“We can’t go back to business-as-usual, because that’s been a disaster for social, economic and environmental wellbeing,” says Dr Macmillan. “Smart investment, on the other hand, can achieve win-win outcomes for people, prosperity and the planet.”

Quotes from signatory organisations

“The RACP sees action on climate change as part of our ongoing campaign to Make Health Equity the Norm for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand – healthy houses, healthy jobs, and healthy tamariki and whānau,”says Dr Jeff Brown, Aotearoa New Zealand President, Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

“Alison Eddy, Chief Executive of the College of Midwives, recognises the urgent need for the Government to consider the next generation, who midwives welcome into the world every day. There is a fundamental obligation to support intergenerational justice to ensure the environment is safe and protected for our children.”

 ENDS

Media Spokesperson: Dr. Alexandra Macmillan, Mob. 021 322 625

Dr Alex Macmillan (co-convenor@orataiao.org.nz) is a Public Health Physician, Associate Professor of Environment and Health at the University of Otago, and Co-Convenor of OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council.

Government urged to prioritise access to COVID supplies and vaccine ahead of trade rules

“Working in cancer, every day I see the suffering and concern caused by unrestricted pharmaceutical pricing.  Because of IP rules, whānau are being charged a King’s ransom for medicines that will help keep their loved ones alive.  

 
Now there is the chance this will be repeated across the whole of society, as corporations seek to profit from tests and treatments for COVID-19”, warns Dr George Laking, a medical oncologist from Whakatohea speaking on behalf of Doctors for Healthy Trade.

As countries search for a treatment or vaccine for COVID-19, New Zealand needs to ensure access to affordable supplies from offshore, without being held to ransom by pharmaceutical companies or waiting in a long queue behind countries with more influence or deeper pockets.

Two open letters, signed by international and national organisations, have been sent to the Minister of Health and Minister of Trade this week urging them to address concerns that the World Trade Organization’s intellectual property rules could prevent New Zealand’s ability to secure affordable access to medical supplies, especially vaccines and potential medicines to treat COVID-19 that are currently being developed.

One letter was addressed to a small group of countries, including New Zealand, who pledged back in 2003 not to use flexibilities in the WTO agreement on intellectual property that would allow them to import medicines made under compulsory licences in another country, even in a medical emergency.

“It is totally irrational for New Zealand to keep its own hands tied, as it prepares to meet the COVID-19 needs of its population, by voluntarily shutting itself off from patented ingredients, components, and essential medical products and supplies”, says Prudence Stone, CEO of the Public Health Association of New Zealand, who co-signed the letter with Sarah Dalton, the Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

“New Zealand needs to notify the WTO that it will now import medicines made under compulsory licence elsewhere”

The second letter, signed by nearly 300 international organisations including Médicins sans Frontières Access Campaign, Public Services International and Oxfam International, as well as the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, Doctors for Healthy Trade, the Public Health Association, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, called on WTO Members to stop trying to negotiate new agreements by the Internet, in which developing countries could not effectively take part:

“The first and only priority for trade negotiators at this time should be to remove all obstacles, including intellectual property rules, in existing agreements that hinder timely and affordable access to medical supplies, such as lifesaving medicines, devices, diagnostics and vaccines, and the ability of governments to take whatever steps are necessary to address this crisis. …

We call on WTO Members to ensure that all countries have the flexibilities to set aside trade rules that constrain their ability to resolve the pandemic crisis, without fear of repercussions, and to cease other negotiations and activities that divert their energy and resources from that goal.”

The signatories called for a fundamental rethink of the kind of trade rules that encourage such monopolies and put people’s lives at risk in every country of the world.

Contact:

Dr George Laking 0221248262

Prudence Stone 0272898987

Jane Kelsey 021765055 (for WTO information)