Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaking shortly after announcing his resignation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaking shortly after announcing his resignation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"Kia ora koutou katoa."
It's a phrase synonymous with probably the most recognisable public figure in Aotearoa - along with "across the motu" and perhaps "spread your legs".
It's also one director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has used in the nearly 300 press conferences he's fronted since the beginning of the pandemic.
Its familiarity symbolises not only Bloomfield's commitment to te reo Māori, but just how much of a presence he's been in the lives of most New Zealanders since his first Covid-19 press conference on January 30, 2020.
Bloomfield on Wednesday announced he would be standing down at the end of July - almost a year before his term was due to end in June 2023.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaking shortly after announcing his resignation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
His near-daily presence led to an infatuation never before seen for an unelected official, with his face adorning T-shirts and tea towels, countless memes, songs and even a brand of hot sauce.
Bloomfield began his role in June 2018, and even led an earlier public health response, to the measles outbreak of 2019. But his legacy will undoubtedly be Covid-19.
He assured the public there was nothing untoward in his decision to resign, and also that he had "not a jot" of political ambition either, rather that it was "time".
Bloomfield said the three prior directors-general had done three to four years of five-year terms.
"The last two years could not have been more complex and challenging. I've been thinking for a while about when would be a good time to step down."
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaking shortly after announcing his resignation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He also said his family would be happy to have more time with him.
Incidentally, director of public health Dr Caroline McElnay, who stood alongside him for that first Covid-19 press conference, and public health deputy director Dr Niki Stefanogiannis will also soon be departing from the Ministry, with burnout understood to be a factor - as felt across the whole health sector, along with Covid-fatigue.
Bloomfield demurred when asked directly if the health reforms and new agencies Health NZ and Māori Health Authority were part of his decision.
Asked whether he had been asked to have a role in the new system, which comes into effect on July 1, Bloomfield said he was "happy with the role I had" because it was where he could add the most value.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaking shortly after announcing his resignation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He would also bed in the reforms as he was staying on as director general until July 29.
But it was also a very different role to the one he came into four years ago, and the timing was good for someone new to come in, Bloomfield said.
Health workers say Bloomfield "felt the pain"
Emergency doctor and chair of the Council of Medical Colleges John Bonning told RNZ Bloomfield had to step up to communicate with the public in a role that would normally have been done by politicians.
He exuded trust and had stellar public health credentials, as a medical doctor who had worked for the World Health Organisation and headed a DHB, Bonning said.
He engaged and communicated very regularly with health worker groups.
"He felt the pain, he felt the pressure along with the rest of us," he said.
Speaking to RNZ, Epidemiologist professor Dr Rod Jackson said the country "lucked in" in a big way by having a public doctor leading the health service during the pandemic.
"There was really no one more appropriate for the job at that time. Very experienced, very well qualified, public health doctor, public health professional. Good communicator, he was trusted and he deserved that trust because he had the expertise and he trusted the evidence."
Jackson said Bloomfield was "absolutely" part of the leadership group that saved the health service and saved thousands of lives. "The proof is in the pudding - you know, we've had the best outcome in the pandemic in the world and that's down to good leadership."
Bloomfield will be remembered for the Covid-19 response, but in his first two years he was trying to address an underfunded department that hadn't been well-led by the previous director general, Jackson said. "He had a mess to clean up."
Jackson said Bloomfield's main legacy was Covid-19. "It's kind of sad that he's going at this stage because he's incredibly well qualified."
He said the work was relentless and he was amazed that they had lasted so long. "They must be just so worn out."
On the exodus at the Ministry of Health with two other top executives also leaving, Jackson said they were there at the most important stage and it was a bit worrying they were going.
"The next phase is going to be messy, it's going to be more political."
Former DHB chief executive Craig Climo told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that Bloomfield has been a superhero.
"He's that mild-mannered Clark Kent but he truly has been a superman.
"I sometimes said to people if Winston Churchill was the right man for his time then Ashley certainly has been through this time as well, but in fairness to Ashley he'd be the right man for any time," he said.
Having worked with Bloomfield in the past, Climo said the Bloomfield you see on television is the real deal.
"It has been a heck of a time for Ashley and the Ministry so I fully understand why he'd want to come up for air," he said.
Minister of Health Andrew Little said he totally understood the decisions of both Bloomfield and McElnay to leave because they had been at the forefront of the Covid-19 response.
He told RNZ meetings could be at any time of the week and day and either one or both of them would be there whether it be at the weekend or late at night.
"They have been absolutely tireless in the way they have applied themselves for this."
Bloomfield had told Little at the weekend that he was exhausted so it came as no surprise that he wanted to take some time out.
"I suspect the prospect of then stepping into a big change process after all he's done in the last two years and spent the past four years with is probably something he just didn't want to do at this point."
When asked on the AM Show if he had felt sidelined, Little said no as there would still be a director-general of health after the reforms and they would still be the leader of the health system.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield grabs a photo with Dakta Green who sports a caricature portrait of Dr Bloomfield drawn by Jeff Bell. Photo / Mike Scott
Little said under the new health system the director general's - and ministry's - role would become more focused on policy, monitoring and oversight, rather than commissioning and operational work as it does now.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said of Bloomfield she "cannot imagine someone who is a better example of what being a true public servant is.
"He has been tireless. He has been dedicated. He's taken an enormous load, and he's contributed to the success that New Zealand has had and keeping people safe through this pandemic."
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield makes a guest appearance at Rhythm and Vines 2020 music festival in a Covid-19 video. Photo / Supplied
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins gave a personal thank you to the person he said Kiwis knew as "the DG".
His entire life had been dedicated to the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders, Hipkins said.
"You have saved thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives," Hipkins told Bloomfield.
Bloomfield's advice helped shape key decisions throughout the pandemic from the border restrictions to lockdowns.
He helped keep New Zealand Covid-free while the pandemic raged overseas, and when it couldn't be kept out any longer much of the population had been vaccinated and a less-deadly variant had emerged.
The infatuation with Dr Ashley Bloomfield, here immortalised in a hand towel. Photo / Supplied
His actions contributed to New Zealand's per capita fatality rate being the lowest in the OECD, and globally-praised health response.
There was the testing debacle in 2020 when Cabinet declared all border-facing workers would be regularly tested, but nearly two months later most of them hadn't been.
There were a raft of managed isolation and quarantine issues, slow adoption of saliva testing, issues with contact-tracing, ordering rapid antigen tests, sharing information with Māori health providers, and planning for post-elimination.
Te Whānau O Waiapareira chief executive John Tamihere said the director-general had done a decent job but he was uncomfortable with the "idolatry" that had sprung up around him.
He had called Bloomfield out over the past two years on issues like the delays giving Māori health groups autonomy to look after their communities, and of the ministry's initial failure to hand over health data.
National Party Covid-19 spokesman Chris Bishop said while as an Opposition MP he'd often held Bloomfield to account on such issues, he and National "acknowledge the enormous amount of work" he'd done for New Zealand.
A superhero-themed sketch of Bloomfield and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern by Auckland artist Jason Hoyt. Photo / Supplied
"Look he's just done an incredible service to New Zealand and I think we should take the time to acknowledge that."
Bishop thought Covid Minister roles may be gone in a few months.
"I'm very happy to abolish myself as long as the Government is happy to abolish Chris Hipkins role as Covid Minister," he said.
"I think what will happen is it will move back to the health portfolio and be dealt with by Andrew Little and in our case Shane Reti."
Act Party leader David Seymour, a regular critic of Bloomfield including his regular presence at Cabinet and alongside the Prime Minister, said Bloomfield's legacy was "a disaster".
"I have nothing against the guy personally but PPE supply contact tracing, testing, vaccine rollouts ... has been a disaster.
"The basic operational execution of the Covid-19 response has been disastrous."
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson meanwhile said Bloomfield's greatest legacy would be that he "genuinely cared".
"He genuinely cared about this work and was giving his all to ensure that New Zealand, and today it's very clear, did have one of the best responses to the pandemic."
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and health spokeswoman Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said Bloomfield's resignation was a chance to ensure there was Māori leadership at the most senior levels of the health system.
"We need a system that understands us and is responsive to our needs, not a system that refuses to share power and resources."
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield makes a guest appearance at Rhythm and Vines 2020 music festival in a Covid-19 video. Photo / Supplied
Asked if he had any regrets, Bloomfield said every day he had thought about things they should and could be doing better.
He had noted the nature of the feedback directed at the officials was "very gendered" - his female colleagues got a very different type of response to him "and I think that is terrible, and it's something we need to do something about".
The biggest decision that weighed on him was to go into the first lockdown and the advice he gave around that. It was something they had never thought they would do.
"There was a lot at stake," he said.
Asked about some of the more peculiar moments, Bloomfield said the weirdest gift he ever received was "a pair of tie-dyed Thunderpants".
"Am I going to miss the limelight? No, not a bit."
He said there would be karaoke at his leaving party - "Heck yes!"
"I'll kick off with 'Friday I'm in love' by The Cure."
