Our GM Kate Moodabe is the new 2025 New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora ProPharma Supreme Winner in recognition of her ground-breaking, equity-driven mahi over close to 40 years.
On 6 September at Auckland Cordis hotel, Kate also received the CareHQ Outstanding Contribution to Health award. We also acknowledge the incredible mahi of Tāmaki Health Wellness Support Team clinical director Dr David Codyre, who was the runner-up in this category.
Judges praised Kate’s “remarkable, and measurable, outcomes from major changes that make access easier and also involving the community – taking services to the community by collaborating outside the medical model”. They also noted her “abundance of energy, determination and leadership required to implement and make these important changes successful”.
Kate never seeks the limelight for herself so we’re so excited she now has national recognition!
Her trailblazing work includes successfully advocating for the national introduction of HPV self-testing to reduce cervical cancer deaths and partnering with BBM Motivation to introduce GP clinics in gyms to boost health screening and support for Māori and Pasifika struggling with obesity-related issues.
Kate’s unstoppable drive is fuelled by a determination to resolve New Zealand health inequities that are ruining lives and causing preventable deaths. The solutions she finds are revolutionary and impactful.
Successful advocate for HPV self-testing
Kate took up the role of advocating nationally for the introduction of HPV self-testing in 2020. She was utterly frustrated at the alarming under-screening rates for cervical cancer during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Adding to her frustration was that the promised introduction HPV self-testing in 2018, an easier and more accurate form of testing than the smear test, hadn’t happened.
Kate and Professor Bev Lawton, who was recently named Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year, successfully advocated for HPV self-testing to become the primary way to screen for cervical cancer.
In 2018 Kate put her hand up for Total Healthcare PHO to undertake New Zealand’s first HPV self-testing feasibility study and it found that Māori women were 10 times more likely and Pasifika women six times more likely to do HPV self-sampling than have a cervical smear.
After further significant campaigning, Total Healthcare PHO was successful in gaining approval in 2021 from the National Screening Unit to embark on a larger HPV self-sampling initiative (that ended up covering six of its Auckland clinics). This meant the PHO’s large Māori and Pasifika patient population were among the first in the country to get access to a game-changing screening technique for cervical cancer.
The successful initiative introduced by Total Healthcare informed the national rollout of HPV self-testing throughout Aotearoa from September 2023.
Unique collaboration a life-changer for Māori and Pasifika
Kate also identified a New Zealand-first solution to the problem of severely overweight people becoming disengaged from primary healthcare, adding to their health and wellness issues.
This involved bringing free medical and psychological support to severely overweight people in a gym setting. It’s also unique because it was the first time start-up funding for a health project had been given by Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand directly to a PHO and community-based programme (BBM Motivation).
The From the Couch programme that resulted from the partnership combines the peer-led support for weight loss, motivation and wellbeing with the medical and psychological support from Total Healthcare and its medical provider Tāmaki Health. Massey researchers have praised the “powerful combination” of joining the community connections of BBM Motivation with the medical and professional resources of Total Healthcare.
During her earlier career at ProCare as Network Manukau CEO, Kate established health services in three rural marae and helped develop New Zealand’s first electronic decision support tool for cardiovascular disease.
