{"id":591279,"date":"2022-04-06T00:48:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T00:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=72480"},"modified":"2022-04-06T00:48:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T00:48:54","slug":"nzs-director-general-of-health-ashley-bloomfield-to-step-down-from-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/04\/06\/nzs-director-general-of-health-ashley-bloomfield-to-step-down-from-role\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ\u2019s Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield to step down from role"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article__body\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/\"><em>RNZ News<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aotearoa New Zealand&#8217;s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield &#8212; the man who has tirelessly steered the country&#8217;s covid-19 pandemic response for the past two years &#8212; is stepping down from his role at the end of July.<\/p>\n<p>Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes revealed Dr Bloomfield&#8217;s decision in a statement today.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Bloomfield had signalled to the commissioner late last year he intended to step down before his term officially ended on 11 June 2023, Hughes said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=NZ+covid+outbreak\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Other NZ covid outbreak reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He said Dr Bloomfield had done an outstanding job leading the government&#8217;s health response to covid-19 and the vaccination rollout.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dr Bloomfield has worked tirelessly for more than two years to keep New Zealanders safe from coronavirus,&#8221; Hughes said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dr Bloomfield has demonstrated remarkable resilience and courage in leading the health system&#8217;s overall response to Covid-19. That response has saved lives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thank Dr Bloomfield for his commitment to public service, his spirit of service to the community and his exceptional contribution to New Zealand&#8217;s covid-19 response. I know many New Zealanders will also be thankful for the job he has done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Good hold on the virus<\/strong><br \/>\nHughes said Dr Bloomfield wanted to stay on until the country had a good hold on the virus, and that time was now.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \">\n<figure style=\"width: 720px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/assets\/news\/272509\/eight_col_pm_robertson_edit.jpg?1629181283\" alt=\"Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Deputy Prime Minister Bruce Robertson\" width=\"720\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson &#8230; &#8220;central to our COVID success as a nation.&#8221; Image: Samuel Rillstone\/RNZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>In a post on Facebook, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Bloomfield had been a true public servant in every sense, through his dedication, drive and calmness.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He has been central to our COVID success as a nation, and he&#8217;s done it with humour and grace (I&#8217;ll keep the details of his sporadic mockery of me to myself!),&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we spoke about his decision to move on, he mentioned that he wanted to spend time with his family, and that&#8217;s the least we owe him. So kia ora from across the Motu, Dr Bloomfield. We thank you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjacindaardern%2Fposts%2F518284699666760&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"618\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins also posted on Facebook after the news was released, acknowledging Bloomfield for being a &#8220;reassuring figure&#8221; through the pandemic response.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The amount of pressure he&#8217;s absorbed, and the level of commitment he&#8217;s shown over the past two years make that an easy decision to understand.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8216;Give the man a beer&#8217;<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;We thank you Ashley for all you&#8217;ve done to keep us all safe. Give the man a beer, he&#8217;s truly earned it!&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">As a Minister I want to thank Dr Bloomfield for advising the Govt on some of the most important decisions taken in peacetime.<br \/>\nAs a doctor I want to acknowledge <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AshBloomfield?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AshBloomfield<\/a> as a colleague who has made an unparalleled contribution to protecting the health of New Zealanders.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ayesha Verrall (@drayeshaverrall) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drayeshaverrall\/status\/1511480952408899584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nAn acting director-general will be appointed before Bloomfield finishes on 29 July, 2022.<\/p>\n<p><i><em>This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2022\/04\/06\/nzs-director-general-of-health-ashley-bloomfield-stepping-down-from-role\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RNZ News Aotearoa New Zealand\u2019s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield \u2014 the man who has tirelessly steered the country\u2019s covid-19 pandemic response for the past two years \u2014 is stepping down from his role at the end of July. Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes revealed Dr Bloomfield\u2019s decision in a statement today. Dr Bloomfield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338,35719,45811,29396,304,47268,3085,5,365,387,255,12,403,14,1573,1716,368],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591323,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591279\/revisions\/591323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}