Brookes standing for CCDHB

This article was first published in Kai Tiaki
Nursing New Zealand, July 2016.
Re-posted with permission. 

NZNO PRESIDENT Grant Brookes is standing in this year's Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) elections. He was the highest polling non-successful candidate in the 2013 elections and believes his work with NZNO, and close relationship with the hospital and local community give him the qualifications needed.

"It was difficult deciding to stand again, because of the time needed for my NZNO role, but I have had plenty of offers of help for my election campaign," Brookes said. "I also see a strong synergy between serving as NZNO president and as a DHB board member. Because of amendments to the law under this Government, board members are now even more answerable to the Minister of Health. However, morally, if elected, I believe I will be answerable to our DHB residents. How this will work in practice, I do not know, but it is certainly something I want to try to do."

Brookes' goal is to be part of a like-minded team of elected members. "I can't make changes on my own." He has already begun discussions with current board member Sue Kedgley. Council of Trade Unions' senior policy analyst and programme manager Eileen Brown is also standing for election at CCDHB.

NZNO's board of directors has endorsed Brookes' nomination, as it did in the 2013 elections.
Brookes has worked for 13 years in CCDHB's acute mental health unit. He still works casual shifts to maintain his practising certificate. Although now employed by NZNO (by request, he is on a staff nurse's salary, rather than the full presidential salary), he maintains special staff status at the DHB.

Election platform

His election platform includes a focus on illness prevention and community care ("these are so often the casualties of health cuts"), the reversal of the decline in health funding, more money for frontline services rather than management pay rises, bringing "care" back into aged care and whanau ora for all.

Waitemata DHB clinical nurse specialist Monina Gesmundo is also standing for election, under a Labour Party ticket. Her community involvement and advocacy for health and human rights has motivated her decision to stand this year, she said.

Nominations for DHB elections opened this month and close on August 12. Voting begins on September 16.

Nurses Organisation President to stand for Wellington’s DHB

Media release – Vote Grant Brookes for Capital & Coast DHB

15 July 2016

As nominations open for this year’s local elections, New Zealand Nurses Organisation President Grant Brookes today announced his intention to stand for the Capital & Coast District Health Board. 

“The most trusted profession have put their trust in me, electing me President of the Nurses Organisation”, said Grant. “Now I'm asking residents to put me at the top of their list of DHB candidates in October.”

Grant has been nursing for two decades, including 13 years at Wellington Hospital. NZNO is endorsing him in the election. 

“I want to put the “care” back into aged care, with our elderly properly looked after”, says Grant. “As a parent, I know health grows from whānau ora – family well-being. I support partnerships with Māori.

“For people to live well, get well and stay well, we need fences at the top of the cliff, not ambulances below. Yet prevention and community care are often the first casualty of cuts, so we must also reverse the decline in health funding. 

“And that money should go to improving health, not CEO pay rises.”

Analysis by the Economist and Director of Policy at the Council of Trade Unions, Bill Rosenberg, puts the national shortfall in health funding at $1.2 billion this year, compared to 2009/10.

“One effect of this is that Capital & Coast DHB is now facing major challenges”, Grant commented. “The problems are too big for any one individual to fix. But health is my sole focus, not a sideline. As part of a like-minded team, I believe I can help the DHB to rise to the challenge.”