Kia ora, I'm Catherine Epps, Director of Medical Devices at Pharmac.
Tell us about your professional background, where have you come from?
I'm a speech language therapist by training. So that means I've worked in a number of different clinical settings and with people with a range of disabilities. I've then moved into leadership roles including being the Executive Director Allied Health Scientific and Technical at, what was, Capital and Coast District Health Board. Most recently I've come from Worksafe. Where I was leading the work to prevent the harm to people's health that can happen in the course of their work.
What inspired you to apply for the Devices Director role at Pharmac?
I was excited about the Medical Devices Director role at Pharmac probably for two reasons.
- Pharmac has a really good reputation - I've known several former colleagues that have worked at Pharmac and they've impressed me.
- The medical devices role appealed to me particularly because I've worked with a number of different medical devices and I know how important it is to make sure you've got the right things at the right time to be able to use in a clinical environment with your patients.
You've been at Pharmac since August, what have you achieved in this time?
Firstly, we are a new directorate, so we've been forming ourselves and getting to know each other. Secondly, the seed funding that has arrived from Te Whatu Ora really helps us to accelerate the medical devices programme - so that's been a source of time and energy for a number of us. And thirdly, probably building relationships. So meeting people within Pharmac and outside of Pharmac, all of whom are really invested in improving the work of the medical devices programme for New Zealand.
What are your plans for the future of the Hospital Medical Devices mahi?
It's a really significant area in terms of its size and its impact on the hospitals of New Zealand. So it's important to us that we work to complete the hospital medical devices list. And that we have good ways of managing all the different categories, so that we have the most efficient medical devices process for each category. Of course we want this to land well for hospital staff, health practitioners, patients and families so we'll be making sure that we can measure and demonstrate the changes we've made.
