Tēnā koutou katoa e ngā Ika-ā-whiro o te Ao Hauora – koutou kua whakaekea nei i ngā maunga teitei, e tū tonu pea i te paritū whakamataku, e hēmanawa tonu ana ai!
Heaven only knows how hard you are all working and how much we have advertised the Te ORA (MAS) Awards Dinner as a little salve to our collective exhaustion.
We’re probably COVID peaking again next week, hospitals are struggling, workforces are depleted and our whānau Māori patient group remain at high risk – not to mention all of you on the frontlines.
E kore rā e memeha te aroha ki a tātau! Clearly, the timing of the Awards Dinner has proven to be poor once again. Ka aroha hoki te tangata, māna e ki nei “The Te Ora (MAS) Awards Dinner is off” but unfortunately, we think it’s the right thing to do – and we are moving to an online Awards Ceremony.
We have Te Hamua Nikora as MC, we are maintaining Riana Manuel of Te Aka Whai Ora and Nicola Airey of Medical Assurance Society as special guests, we will present the:
- Maarire Goodall Award,
- (Paratene Ngata) Ngākau Ora Award,
- (Tony Ruakere) Iwi Health Award,
- 3 PHARMAC Scholarships,
- Ngā Rangatira Matahiapō Hauora (Te Ōranga) Award,
- Te Rā Tūhura (best college presentation) acknowledgment, and
- we will repeat the presentation of the PRIDoC Kekuni-Paratene Advocacy Award to our tuakana, Moana Jackson.
Amy (from Auaha) and Te Aniwa will be working on turning this beast around, refunding all money from the Awards Dinner, and rescheduling/canceling bits and pieces of the event. And I guess we are all pretty much used to changing flights and bookings and having endless Air New Zealand credits.
The Te ORA Board apologises profusely for not being able to halt this COVID wave by next weekend, but please let’s get together on Zoom (so that we can all see our beaming faces) at 6 on Saturday next weekend and celebrate ourselves as outstanding practitioners who are recognising some really cool colleagues for their great performance over the recent year(s).
Nāhaku me taku aroha mutunga kore ki a tātau katoa
David Tipene-Leach
Kaihautu/Chairperson