Fionnagh Dougan has been appointed as the new joint chief executive for Capital & Coast and Hutt Valley District Health Boards. She will start in the role on 1 July 2019.

Dougan will return to New Zealand to take up the role. She is currently the chief executive of the Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, and an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland.

Before moving to Australia, Dougan held a number of leadership roles with Auckland DHB. She has a clinical background as a registered nurse and a mental health nurse in the UK, and has roles with a number of health bodies, including roles as president of Children’s Hospitals Australasia, and member of the Health Round Table.

Board chair for the two DHBs Andrew Blair said it has been a rigorous and robust recruitment process and the appointment was a unanimous decision by both DHB boards.

“We believe Fionnagh’s expertise and experience will be instrumental in achieving our shared vision of having a unified health service across the region,” said Blair.

“We have a shared community with many people working in one region and living in another. There are a lot of opportunities to give people better and fairer access to the same excellent healthcare services across the region. Fionnagh will support the DHBs to do this.”

This is the first time the two DHBs have had a joint chief executive. The DHBs will remain separate organisations with separate boards.

Source: HVDHB & CCDHB media release, 28 March 2019

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