Chief with a passion for public healthcare

Gary Henry

General manager

National Women's Hospital


What makes your day at work?


Feeling satisfied that I have supported a team of health professionals in my day's work. They are highly skilled, creative and intelligent people who literally save thousands of lives every day.


How did you get to where you are today?


My public healthcare involvement stretches for more than 30 years. I have worked in large teaching and bush hospitals in Australia, and as chief executive of Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital for 12 years. I have a passion for public healthcare and commitment to providing quality public health services.


What is your management style?


My management style is consultative. I focus on identifying the creativity that exists in everyone working here. My goal is to harness individual differences to achieve better results, more creative solutions and subsequently greater job satisfaction for all our staff. Everyone enjoys working in a team of talented and committed people.

What is your advice to someone starting out in your field of work?


Remember the most important people in a health organisation are the clinical staff who are providing the hands-on care - midwives, doctors, and nurses. Every additional layer in the organisation must be adding value to the work of those care-givers.

What was your biggest career break?


The then Royal Melbourne Hospital chief executive, Len Swinden, thought I had potential and gave me a job as manager of 50 staff. I was 25, keen to learn, and he believed in teaching young people how to be better managers.

Who was your most important mentor?


He was my most important mentor and mentor to many people who became chief executives in hospitals and health services in Australia.

What's the biggest challenge for your organisation?

Auckland Healthcare is going through the largest health redevelopment in New Zealand's history. Our Health Services Delivery Plan (HSDP) is a $420 million project that will see us build a new high-tech acute hospital and complete several other highly significant health building projects. HSDP is the biggest challenge facing Auckland Healthcare. However, within HSDP there are a huge number of challenges. One of these is our clinical leadership strategy. This involves getting clinicians and managers to work together to find better ways of treating patients and making the best use of available funding.

What skill would you like to have?


I'd like to be a more persuasive negotiator with our health funding organisations. Quality of care data proves that National Women's is one of the safest and most efficient women's hospitals in the world. These two facts are a credit to the staff at National Women's and they deserve a tremendous amount of recognition and more appropriate funding.

How do you relax?


My wife, Pauline, and I like flyfishing. This is a beautiful country and there are so many fantastic rivers. We like Turangi and have been fishing around Queenstown. We are also sports fans and have enjoyed learning about rugby. Because we are from Melbourne, neither of us had seen a live game of rugby until we came to New Zealand. I also like to watch Aussie Rules whenever it is on television.

How important is it to keep a sense of humour in your job?


Don't take yourself too seriously - it helps me put things in perspective and keep greater focus on what I do that is important for the organisation. The ability to see the funny side of things is a great way to relieve work place stress.

* Gary Henry talked with Susan Jennison.