Expert Advisory Group

Governance for the Health Quality & Safety Commission's Safe Surgery NZ programme is provided by the Strategic Safe Surgery NZ Advisory Group (SSNZAG).

The group has representation from across the sector, including:

• members of the Commission’s Safe Surgery NZ programme
• the Perioperative Nurses College (NZNO)
• the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
• the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
• resident medical officers
• private surgical providers
• a human factors expert
• a consumer representative
• the Accident Compensation Corporation.

The SSNZAG meets quarterly. 

Meeting minutes

Below are minutes from meetings of the Strategic Safe Surgery NZ Advisory Group.

Members

Professor Ian Civil

Professor Ian Civil trained in Auckland, initially in general surgery and spent subsequent time in training in vascular surgery and trauma in the USA.

He is a Professor of Surgery in the University of Auckland, Department of Surgery and has been Director of Trauma Services at Auckland City Hospital since 1992. He has served on a number of international trauma organisations becoming President of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM) in 1990 and President of the International Association for the Surgery of Trauma and Intensive Care (IATSIC) from 2007-2009 and President of the Australasian Trauma Society (ATS) from 2011-2013.

Ian is a member of the Editorial Boards for the World Journal of Surgery and the World Journal of Emergency Surgery, Associate Editor of Traffic Injury Prevention, Senior Editor of the Australian and NZ Journal of Surgery and Deputy Editor of INJURY. From 2003-2012 Ian was a member of the Council of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and served as President from 2010-2012. He is the Clinical Lead for the Major Trauma National Clinical Network and the Medical Clinical Lead for the Commission's Safe Surgery Advisory Group.

Bob Henderson

Bob Henderson has a background in psychology, having completed a Master of Science with first class honours at the University of Auckland in 2001, and is a human factors specialist.

Bob has over four decades of experience in leadership, management, training and research roles. He served as a Royal New Zealand Air Force officer for 22 years gaining experience in a wide variety of roles. He subsequently worked for Air New Zealand for the past 21 years in the roles of aircraft captain, instructor, the Manager Human Factors Training and A320 Training Manager.

He is on the board of the Health Quality & Safety Commission, a member of the the Commission's Safe Surgery NZ Advisory Group and the ACC Neonatal Encephalopathy Task Force. He has been a board member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, based in Switzerland, since 2008.

As a consultant with Henderson White Associates he has had assignments within research organisations, and utilities, telecommunications and transport industries in New Zealand and Australia, introducing training programmes to improve their work practices and safety. He has also worked closely with the medical community in New Zealand providing training in Just Culture and human factors.

Dr William Perry

Dr Will Perry is a New Zealand trained doctor and has completed a Master of Public Health at Harvard University as a Fulbright Fellow.

He is currently a trainee in general surgery and acts as an external consultant to the Patient Safety Programme at the World Health Organisation. He is also a director of Nyes Institute. He is particularly interested in how people interact within health systems, implementation strategy, governance, and global surgery.

Professor Justin Roake

Professor Justin Roake is a specialist vascular surgeon with the Christchurch Vascular Group. Professor Roake is a graduate of University of Otago (MBChB 1981) and Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (1989) and Royal College of Surgeons of England (1996). He has a doctorate in immunology from Oxford University (DPhil Oxon 1993).

Professor Roake undertook specialist training in vascular surgery in Oxford between 1989 and 1997. He was appointed as Professor of Surgery and Head of Department, Christchurch School of Medicine, in 1997 and is a renal transplant and vascular surgeon at Christchurch Hospital. He is the Clinical Director of the Department of Vascular, Endovascular & Renal Transplantation Surgery.

Professor Roake has research interests in the biology of vascular disease, clinical prioritisation for surgery, medical education and modelling of clinical assessments of risks and benefits in vascular surgery.

Rosaleen Robertson

Rosaleen is responsible for clinical safety, quality and risk management systems within the Southern Cross national network of private surgical hospitals. This involves areas such as patient and consumer safety, credentialing processes for almost 1,000 surgeons, anaesthetists and other medical specialists, clinical governance management and risk reporting systems.

Rosaleen’s background includes education at the University of Pennsylvania and Massey University, and surgical and intensive care roles in hospitals in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Rosaleen is a member of the Perioperative Mortality Review Committee, the Surgical Safety Checklist Group, the New Zealand Institute of Health Management, and the Australasian Association for Quality in Health Care and is also a Fellow of the College of Nurses Aotearoa. Over the last decade she has also contributed to the Health and Disability Service Standards development and review.

Dr Mike Stitely

Mike was appointed as Associate Professor at Dunedin School of Medicine in November 2012, after working as a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology for the Southern District Health Board from February 2011.

Prior to coming to New Zealand, Mike was on the faculty at the West Virginia University School of Medicine in the USA.

Dr Nigel Willis

Dr Willis is a New Zealand trained and qualified Orthopaedic Surgeon, specialising in Foot and Ankle Surgery, as well as Trauma and Limb Reconstruction.

Dr Willis graduated from Otago University Medical School in 1987 and qualified as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1988. He then underwent further orthopaedic training in Canada and Oxford, UK.

He has a special interest in lower limb joint replacement and athroscopy surgery. In addition to this, he continues to provide a general orthopaedic service for a specific range of Upper Limb Pathologues, such as Carpel Tunnel and Tennis Elbow.

He is a member of FRACS, and the New Zealand National Board of FRACS.

Dr Leona Wilson

Leona is a specialist anaesthetist working in public and private practice in Wellington. Her career in medicine and anaesthesia involved training at Otago University Medical School, Kings College Hospital, The Royal Free Hospital in London, and Wellington Hospital, where she later became the Director of the Department of Anaesthesia (1998-2003). She completed a Masters of Public Health and a Fellowship of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

As a member of the governing Council of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, Leona has contributed to a wide range of College activities, including chairing the New Zealand National Committee, examining for the Final Examination, chairing the Education and Training Committee and the Hospital Accreditation Committee.

Leona provides expert advice to a number of organisations in New Zealand, including the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and the Competence Assessment Team of the Medical Council of New Zealand. She was the first female anaesthetist to be elected President of ANZCA (2008-10) and the first New Zealander to hold the position.