{"id":212272,"date":"2026-01-01T23:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212272\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:18:08","slug":"dame-karen-poutasi-first-female-director-general-of-health-dies-aged-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212272\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Karen Poutasi, first female director-general of health, dies aged 76"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Karen<\/p>\n

\nKaren Poutasi
\nPhoto: Supplied.\n<\/p>\n

One of the country’s top health leaders has died.<\/p>\n

Tributes are being paid to Dame Karen Poutasi, who was the first female director-general of health.<\/p>\n

Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said Dame Karen led the implementation of the recommendations from the Cartwright Inquiry<\/a>, guided New Zealand’s early response to HIV\/AIDS and saw through significant reform in primary care.<\/p>\n

She said Dame Karen took on some of the toughest public service assignments, including contributing to the governance of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.<\/p>\n

She said the qualities that defined her career include professionalism, humility and a no-nonsense approach to getting things done.<\/p>\n

Dame Karen was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2020 for her services to education and the state.<\/p>\n

She was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006 for her services to health administration.<\/p>\n

She worked for 30 years in the health sector, served as director-general of health at from 1995 to 2006 and briefly chaired Health New Zealand in 2023\/4<\/a> after the resignation of Rob Cambpell.<\/p>\n

Dame Karen was also chief executive of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) for 14 years.<\/p>\n

She was 76.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karen Poutasi Photo: Supplied. One of the country’s top health leaders has died. Tributes are being paid to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-212272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}