The Ministry of Health formally welcomed their new Chief Advisor Pacific Health, Dr Api Talemaitoga, in Wellington yesterday. The 47 year-old Fijian-born doctor joined the Ministry in July 2008 and takes over from Samoan Dr Debbie Ryan.
Dr Talemaitoga has a wealth of experience both in New Zealand and across the Pacific.
His role at the Ministry will be to help make health services and the system more responsive to the health needs of Pacific populations living in New Zealand.
Prior to his appointment, Dr Talemaitoga was a medical practitioner and Clinical Director at the Pacific health clinic in Christchurch. Before that, he was a senior house officer and medical registrar at Christchurch Hospital (1995-1996) and at Colonial War Hospital in Suva, Fiji (1989 1993).
Dr Talemaitoga graduated from Otago University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery; in 1996 he also completed a diploma of paediatrics through Auckland University.
He was a member of the Interim Canterbury District Health Board and is the vice chairman of the Canterbury Pacific Trust and was a member of the Stroke Advisory Group. This role has involved assisting in the writing of new stroke guidelines. He has also been a member of the Pacific Reference Group for the Department of Children and Young Persons (2000-2002).
