On World Health Day, we here in New Zealand are staring down the barrel of losing the head honcho of our public health system in about eight weeks’ time.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the Director-General of Health, announced yesterday that he’s standing down. About a year before his current contract ends.
I see fatigue is thought to be one of the reasons behind his decision. And who’d be surprised by that? I heard Chris Hipkins saying yesterday that if he needed to talk to Bloomfield, it didn’t matter when it was - he was always available. Mornings, evenings, weekends - you name it.
Others are also saying that with the Government restructuring the health system - getting rid of all the health boards and setting up two new health authorities - he’s seen the writing on the wall and he’s getting out because his role is about to become significantly different to what he signed up for in 2018.
Newstalk ZB’s Barry Soper is even suggesting that Dr Bloomfield’s relationship with the Prime Minister could also be a factor. Writing in the NZ Herald today, Barry says they’ve had a somewhat “fractious” relationship behind the scenes.
And that wouldn’t surprise me at all - especially when you think back to the times that the Government has made a decision about something which we’ve found out later has been completely at odds with what the Director-General of Health recommended. The shift down in alert levels last year was one of them.
A little bit like Donald Trump and Dr Anthony Fauci in the United States. Although their differences weren’t just behind closed doors were they? How many times did we see Trump say or announce something and the cameras would hone in on Fauci and you could see him thinking ‘what the heck? Did that turkey really just say that?’.
The only time we got close to that here in New Zealand was when mountain biking advocate and former Health Minister David Clark threw Ashley Bloomfield under a bus in front of the TV cameras.
Remember that? Clark said Bloomfield had accepted responsibility for quarantine cock-ups at the border - and poor old Ashley looked very sad indeed. I think a whole lot more people fell in love with him at that point.
Quite rightly, Clark eventually lost the health portfolio, Bloomfield held on to his job and now, as far as we know anyway, he is bowing out on his terms. So too are a couple of his top sidekicks - also getting out apparently because they’re just worn out.
And who can criticise them for that?
The question now regarding Bloomfield is, what will his legacy be when he walks out of the Ministry of Health headquarters in July?
There is no doubt that, over the past two years, he has become the most well-known and - quite possibly - the most well-liked public servant we’ve ever had in this country.
We all know about the Ashley Bloomfield t-shirts, tea towels, coffee cups, paintings, tattoos - quite extraordinary really wasn’t it? The club rugby games that wouldn’t have even got a mention - but Ashley was in the starting line-up and all the news media was there too.
There was a point where it felt like he could do no wrong. If you want evidence, though, that we didn’t go completely ga-ga, I’ve got it. I’ve checked the Top 10 most popular baby names in 2020 and 2021 and “Ashley” does not feature.
Nevertheless, he was idolised by some. Apparently, women especially “loved” him.
But what will his legacy be?
Will he be remembered as the calm, reassuring face of New Zealand’s Covid-19 response?
Or, will he be remembered for overseeing further downgrading of our health system? Particularly the hospital system.
Remember, it was only two days ago that he admitted to Mike Hosking that the hospital system is under a lot of pressure - even without Covid.
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