World Council for Health NZ – aiming to transform community health

The World Council for Health NZ (WCHNZ) is a broad, grassroots, expert-led initiative.

DTNZ spoke to Leigh Willoughby of the WCHNZ to find out more about the organisation which seeks to transform the way New Zealanders make informed, transparent decisions about their health.

Q1. When was WCHNZ established?

The World Council for Health’s New Zealand Country Council was first established when a steering committee was set up in early 2023.

Q2. What is the relationship between WCHNZ and the global organisation World Council for Health?

The World Council for Health took the decision to decentralise to a network, creating country councils across the world, now active in 35 countries. These are grass-roots groups of professionals and skilled members of the public from all walks of life, aligned with the Better Way Charter and committed to giving service to their communities by providing a holistic, integrated approach to well-being cutting across all disciplines and unifying voices from all interdependent sectors – from farming, media, science, education and beyond. We regularly contribute to the international efforts of the World Council for Health and have offered our perspectives on the current discourse on the World Health Organisation and the International Health Regulations in addition to preparing a document detailing a unified action plan to assist communities affected by natural disasters. We try to join our fellow country council colleagues twice a month for the international meeting to share information and initiatives.

Q3. Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and your background, your role in WCHNZ, and why you have become a part of the WCHNZ?

I am a conventionally trained medic from the UK who specialised in Anaesthesia but also trained in a newer, holistic and root-cause focused discipline called Functional Medicine. I moved to NZ with my kiwi-husband and children in 2016 after spending 8 years as a consultant at Salford Royal in Manchester. I had other roles prior to leaving the UK including Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester and Improvement Science Lead for the department (which at the time totalled around 72 consultants) and I had gained a post-graduate doctorate investigating the role of the gut and inflammation in body-wide illness. In 2016 I started work in anaesthesia at Gisborne Hospital and a couple of years later took on the role of Head of Department until 2022 when I left to concentrate on my clinic that I had started in 2017 part-time. I now work full time as Director of my functional medicine clinic. The pandemic really forced me to put my hand up to help the WCHNZ as I could see the health system failing and wanted to be involved in forging a new way to help people get well. I joined the steering group in late 2023. At the time we were really trying to clarify our purpose – colleagues came and went but I guess I just stuck with it and by default have taken the role of chair.

Q4. What are the primary aims of WCHNZ?

Our Mission is “to enable clinicians to practice with integrity and curiosity in uncertain times”. We have been very mindful that we don’t want to duplicate work that is already being done in terms of service delivery by organisations such as NZDSOS, NZ Nurses Collective, the PHA, Aku Huia Kaimanawa and Re-Envision Health. We have identified a gap in practitioner support and have developed 4 main objectives to achieve our mission: Represent – the global principles of truth, integrity & compassion exemplified by the WCH, Connect – mainstream and complementary approaches, Foster – collaboration & shared experiences and Share resources and evidence-based insights. This will concentrate on collaborative training on the administrative, ethical and technical aspects of delivering the therapeutic partnership between patient and clinician.

Q5. What has the response been so far from the medical and health community to WCHNZ?

We are really early in our development so we are looking to attract practitioners across disciplines who can align with the Better Way Charter of the World Council for Health. So far, when speaking to other like-minded practitioners and clinicians, there seems to be an appetite to share lived experience, to come together as an online community with the aim of reviving and strengthening each other for what the future holds.

Q6. WCHNZ’s values are contained in its ‘Better Way Charter’ – how do you envisage the charter operating at a practical day-to-day level, in the relationship between medical professional and patient?

All the principles of the Better Way Charter speak to the essential moral and ethical dimensions of preventative, proactive and integrative health practices so it doesn’t take a leap of faith to get behind them or apply them. We see honesty and integrity as the backbone – to underpin our desire to build trust and make people’s lives better. It is hard for this to remain front and centre when practitioners feel undervalued, threatened or exhausted. By supporting practitioners to uphold these principles, this will impact and foster a more participatory model of health care where the patient is at the centre, empowered and in charge. Trust in health professionals is at an all time low and it’s now more important than ever that we act in honour, truly listen, focus on the therapeutic partnership and do no harm. By fostering a cross-discipline community we hope that it is obvious that we value diversity of opinions, backgrounds, lived experience and knowledge.

Q7. How can people outside of the medical and health professions help the work of WHCNZ?

We would be so grateful for supporters – members of the public who are passionate about creating health for themselves and others. We would particularly be grateful for those who can connect us with practitioners who may want to join our community – either by word of mouth or by sharing the website. We would be grateful for donations of course, as we don’t have any funding to support the website or any other administrative functions.

Q8. Have you had any feedback on WCHNZ from the Medical Council?

No. We haven’t had any feedback from any of the regulators, however our cross-discipline membership would make all the health regulators’ guidance and standards relevant. Our organisation’s principles would seek to support practitioners in upholding the unifying themes of what good practice looks like i.e. informed consent, bodily autonomy, confidentiality, keeping good records and upholding the Bill of Rights and the HDC Code of Rights.

Q9. How are things progressing with WCHNZ’s shared online university and practitioner directory?

At present the idea of a shared online university is held as an aspiration in the future – for clarity this would in essence be a way of sharing generic ideas and skills in the improvement space rather than in any particular discipline. Establishing, enabling and strengthening clinicians through peer support so that services such as the hubs and clinics are flourishing is our main concern at present, however, we do acknowledge that moving forward, we should also assist health practices to improve. A directory could be an end-point of our work but we have no plans at this stage to pursue it.

Q10. WCHNZ is planning an inaugural meeting of its Practitioner Community in September. When will details ie. day and venue etc. of that meeting be available?

We have a date of 4th September and plan to run the zoom in the evening to allow maximum attendance. There is a preliminary notification on the website, wchnz.org and we plan to promote this across our partners and networks in the coming weeks.

Q11. Is there an agenda available for the inaugural meeting?

The agenda will be very informal as we want to allow the participants to put forward their ideas of what they want from the online community we create. We hope to have an outline for participants in good time before the meeting.

Q12. Is there anything else you would like to say that’s not been covered by the above?

I’d just like to thank you for taking interest in our Country Council and hope your readership can get behind the organisation in whatever way they can.