Safe Medication Management Programme > About Us

ABOUT SMM

SMM Programme Team

Clare Kirk, Programme Lead
Shayne Hunter, IT Systems
Sene Tala, Project Manager
Amanda Ashcroft, Project Manager
Paula Campbell, Implementation Advisor and Project Management Support

Clare Kirk, Programme Lead

Clare graduated from Otago in 1972. She and her husband set up private practice in New Plymouth in 1975 and remained in practice until late 2002 when they moved to Wellington. Clare took on the position of Professional Advisor for Physiotherapy at Hutt Valley District Health Board where she managed 30 physiotherapy staff and also continued to have a clinical case load in the out patient clinic. In 2005 Clare was employed as a Client Service Manager at Quality Health New Zealand. Her portfolio included 19 of the 21 District Health Boards who were accredited with Quality Health New Zealand at the time, the Aged Care sector and Not for Profit Health organisations.

Clare has audited Physiotherapy clinics against the Allied Health Services Sector Standards since 2005 and now leads the Safe Medication Management Programme Team.

Shayne Hunter, IT Systems

Shayne Hunter has 27 years experience in information systems and business covering retail, wholesale, distribution, banking and finance, telecommunications, media, health & disability, education and various other government sectors. His experience includes:
• Management of business and IT projects and programmes
• Standards development including chairing the medicines terminology and business process / messaging standards expert advisory committees for HISO
• Facilitating internal, cross-organisational and sector consultation covering a range of topics
• Business / user requirements capture and solution design

Sene Tala, Project Manager

Sene Tala completed her nursing degree at Whitireia Polytechnic in 2002 and went on to complete a Clinical Masters of Nursing at Massey University four years later. As a Public Health nurse for four years, Sene led the Wellington Public Health nurses in the successful year long Meningococcal B immunisation campaign. Sene then joined the Pacific Health Team at Capital and Coast DHB for two years as the clinical coordinator. Sene is the project manager for the Unit Dose and Bedside Verification cluster.

Amanda Ashcroft, Project Manager

Amanda Ashcroft trained as a nurse in the early 1980’s. She spent her first year at Hutt hospital and then worked in London, at the Royal Marsden, a cancer research hospital.

After returning to Wellington hospital Amanda worked initially in Oncology then went to Intensive Care for the best part of ten years. She gained an excellent grounding for midwifery in the Emergency department, where she worked for two years. Amanda then trained as a midwife and worked as an ‘independent midwife’ on call for two years. In returning to the workforce, after the birth of her third daughter, Amanda returned to Hutt hospital as a core midwife, and recently joined the Safe Medication Management team as a project manager for the Medicine Reconciliation cluster.

Paula Campbell, Implementation Advisor and Project Management Support

Paula graduated from the Wellington Hospital School of Nursing in 1972 and combined family life with Nursing in Orthopaedics, AT&R and Medicine at Capital & Coast DHB until she resigned from her position as Charge Nurse/Team Leader, Internal Medicine at Kenepuru Hospital in 2001.

After a six month break from the workforce, Paula joined the Information Services department at Hutt Valley DHB as Project Leader for the Electronic Medical Record Programme – the development of which extended over six years. More recently Paula has managed various IT projects in primary care for Kowhai Health Trust in Lower Hutt.

Paula has a Bachelor of Nursing and a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Informatics. She was a member of the HISO Expert Advisory Committee that developed standards for Referrals, Status messages and Discharge Summaries in 2006.

She holds a PMP credential and is a member of the Project Management Institute of New Zealand.

Nirasha Parsotam, Clinical Lead - Medicine Reconciliation and Measuring, Reporting and Evaluation

Nirasha graduated from University of Otago as a pharmacist in 1992. She started her hospital pharmacy career at Auckland District Health Board then went to United Kingdom where her interest and experience in medication safety and clincial goverance grew. On her return to Auckland, she establised the medication safety post at Auckland District Health Board and over the last six years with a team of five has lead various medication safety projects and initiatives across the District Health Board and Auckland region. She is a member of the DHBNZ Safe and Quality Use of Medicines Group, medication safety group of the Children's Hospitals of Australasia and NZ Hospital Pharmacists Association.