by Glenn Barclay
Policy Advisor, NZ Public Service Association
The PSI Oceania Health Network had its third meeting in Wellington New Zealand on 29/30 September, with delegates from Fiji, Papua-New Guinea, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and New Zealand.
The meeting started with a video conference link to PSI Health and Municipal Services Officer Jorge Mancillas. Jorge was in Ferney-Voltaire in France, at 10.30pm on a Sunday night so he could talk to the delegates at 9.30am Monday morning New Zealand time. His commitment (and that of Rajendre Khargi who provided technical support) was appreciated by all those present. Jorge talked about the PSI Strategy for the Health Sector and the analysis behind it, which had delegates nodding in agreement. A useful discussion followed.
The meeting also heard other presentations, from Gregory Rofeta on service delivery in the Solomon Islands, Kathy Brightwell from the New Zealand Ministry of Health on health worker migration in the Pacific and Alex Twigg on a recently signed Health Sector Relationship Agreement between the government of New Zealand, the Ministry of Health, the District Health Boards (employers) and the health unions.
The main output from the two days was a strategic plan in which the delegates committed themselves to pursuing health and safety issues in their countries, promoting recruitment of new members (union density is low in many cases) and making contact with the newly established Pacific Human Resources for Health Alliance.
All in all it was a useful meeting.
You can find the presentation by Jorge Mancillas here:
Download oceania_psi_health_strategy.ppt
and the Strategic plan here:
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