Barry Soper: Why there was no point sticking around for Ashley Bloomfield

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield during the Covid-19 response update at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

OPINION:

Sounding like the politician he's become, the country's most famous public servant Ashley Bloomfield on Wednesday announced he was standing aside to spend more time with his family.

But like all announcements of that sort, there's much more to it than that.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who at times privately had a fractious relationship with the Covid-19 custodian, laid it on with a trowel, saying she had come to know the director general of health probably better than any other public servant, and describing him as a true servant of the public.

Bloomfield's resignation would have come as no surprise to Ardern though - it is understood she had been privately confiding, since late last year, that he'd be unlikely to serve out his contract which ends midway through next year.

Such observations also wouldn't have come as a surprise to those she talked to.

Bloomfield was being done out of a job. If he had stuck around, he would have ended this year as a diminished general with few to direct - the guts of his job was disappearing with the Beehive doing away with the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) and replacing them with the new Health New Zealand and the Māori Health Authority.

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield during the Covid-19 response update at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Their new bosses don't have a patch on Bloomfield's academic or practical background experience but they appeal to Ardern and that's important as she reshapes the public service.

The new head honchos in health are both middle-aged women, conveniently coming from demographics with the worst health outcomes, up until now.

New Zealand-born Samoan Margie Apa, chief executive of Counties Manukau Health, will take over the big role at Health NZ. Riana Manuel, a former nurse who worked her way up through the Māori healthcare ranks, takes over the other body.

They'll be living in what will be a Wellington powerhouse apparently, planning to become flatmates in the capital.

It's likely Bloomfield, a man who was privately described by those in the know as a "control freak", could see the rug being pulled from beneath him with the remnants he'd be left with resembling little more than a policy shop. He'd even lose control of the Covid calamity which gave him a profile that few other public servants have managed to achieve.

For Bloomfield, there was no point sticking around. At least he'll be better-known and more qualified on the job market than the other 19 Health Board CEOs who will also soon be looking for work.