Te Whatu Ora Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa has stepped down four months before her term officially ends, saying “a different leadership approach is required” for the Government’s reset of the health system.
Health Minister Simeon Brown made the announcement earlier this morning.
A search process for a chief executive of the health mega-agency had already begun, but Apa’s current term wasn’t expected to finish until the middle of the year.
Dr Dale Bramley has been appointed acting chief executive of Health NZ in the interim, effective immediately.
Health Commissioner Lester Levy said the decision was “mutually agreed on”.
Apa said: “Although my term formally ends in June, Health NZ is at a point in the reset where a different leadership approach is required to take us forward, and I would like to make space for that now.”
The former boss of the Counties Manukau District Health Board took on a fixed-term role as Te Whatu Ora’s chief executive in July 2022, having joined on an interim basis earlier in the year, to support the then-Labour government’s shift to merge the country’s district health boards into one mega-agency.
“I believe that working together collaboratively to join up and improve the care New Zealanders experience is an ambition worth working for. All of us can make so much more of a difference if we can work together better,” Apa said.
“I am pleased to have played a part in that shift.”
Levy said: “Margie has an extraordinary work ethic and from the day of my appointment she has worked extremely hard to support the new work programme.
“The reset is a significant change in direction from where Health NZ was heading but she realigned entirely to the programme.
“On behalf of the three deputy commissioners, we are very grateful for the support she has provided to us, and we wish her very well for the future.”
Brown said: “I acknowledge Margie’s decision to step down as chief executive of Health New Zealand and thank her for her service.”
Apa’s departure follows the replacement of Dr Shane Reti as Health Minister last month.
Last year, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the health portfolio has been the coalition’s most challenging in its first year in Government. Lester Levy was appointed to replace Health NZ’s board last year due to budget deficits in the agency’s finances.
Labour praises Apa, hits out at Government
Labour’s acting health spokesperson Peeni Henare said Apa was a “team player” who helped put in place systems to close healthcare access gaps.
“Whether it was mums-to-be in the furthest reaches of rural New Zealand, to those historically uncatered for in our cities. I want to thank Margie Apa for her work and wish her all the best in her next role,” Henare said.
“Fourteen months in Christopher Luxon’s Government has brought in chaotic changes to leadership: firing his first Health Minister and the Health New Zealand board, and now seeing off the chief executive.
“Soon he will run out of people to blame for his own failures in health.
“Changing leadership while fundamental issues of resourcing are unaddressed is taking the health system backwards.”
