Our Vision: High quality, sustainable, home and community health services

Mō te Rōpū Hauora Kāinga me te Hapori

About the Home and Community Health Association

The Home and Community Health Association (HCHA) represents providers of home and community health services, and is the national voice that promotes and advances excellence, partnership and sustainability for the sector. HCHA’s vision is for New Zealanders to have access to safe, compassionate and quality home and community health services.

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The Association’s objectives are to:

  • provide leadership and advocacy for the home and community health sector
  • establish, promote and recognise high standards for the conduct of home and community health services
  • address members’ educational and information needs
  • provide a united voice for the Association’s membership, to government and the public 
  • maintain links and provide opportunities for the development of the sector 
  • develop home and community health services that reflect the Association’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi
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Governance

HCHA is governed by a Board. Six members are elected by the membership for their skills and ability to strengthen the home and community health sector. Two further independent members are appointed by the Board following a nominations process.

Board members are elected to serve three year terms, for a total period of three consecutive terms of three years.

The current Board is:

Murray Penman (Chairperson) Head of Health and Community Services, Visionwest Community Trust

Murray Penman

Murray is the Head of Health and Community Services at Visionwest Community Trust in Auckland, having previously been the GM for Home Healthcare at Visionwest. Until September 2019 he worked in Disability Services in the Ministry of Health and was responsible for developing Individualised Funding and other supports which put the disabled person and their whanau in charge of their funding and support options. 

Alison Van Wyk (Deputy Chair) Executive General Manager, ProPharma (Independent)

Alison Van Wyk

Alison has a background in nursing, and her previous roles were as Group Chief Operating Officer, Green Cross Health, CEO of Access Community Health and Group Manager, Professional Services for Green Cross Health Medical and Pharmacy Divisions. Alison has a background in nursing and possesses sales, marketing and management experience within the pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare supply chain markets both within New Zealand and internationally.

Meng Cheong Chief Executive, Healthvision NZ Ltd

Meng Cheong

Meng has a Bachelor of Economics, majoring in Accounting, from La Trobe University in Melbourne, as well as a Master of Business Administration from the University of Auckland. Meng has enjoyed more than 20 years experience in the New Zealand health sector in a variety of roles encompassing finance, strategy, business development and operations management. Meng began his career in health at the Auckland Area Health Board as Manager, Corporate Finance. Meng joined Healthvision after six years with Northland DHB where he was General Manager, Finance, Funding and Commercial Services.

Julie Haggie Independent

Julie Haggie

Julie has 20 years of working at senior level/CEO in the NGO and professional body sector. She is currently CEO of Transparency International New Zealand, the NZ chapter of a global anti corruption organisation. 

Prior to that, for eight years, she was CEO of the Home and Community Health Association, through the initiation of pay equity, in between travel and regularisation claims and negotiations.    

Julie is delighted to be appointed as an Independent Board member.  She brings governance experience from several years on the Careerforce Board, and voluntary governance roles including Hui E! Aotearoa

Carmel Conaghan Chief Executive Officer, RDNS NZ

Carmel Conaghan

Carmel has over 25 years of healthcare and senior management experience primarily in the Home and Community Support Services (HCSS) Sector. She commenced her career in Christchurch, New Zealand as a Registered Comprehensive Nurse and then travelled extensively working in a variety of nursing roles in both hospital and community settings; 3 years in Dunedin, 10 years in San Francisco, USA and 9 years in Melbourne, Australia. In 2009 she was delighted to return to NZ to set up the first RDNS NZ office and take up the challenge of working closely with the ADHB and the appointed

Providers to develop and embed the first Restorative Model of service in New Zealand.

In 2013, Carmel joined Geneva Healthcare as General Manager – Home and Community Services where she worked to support Geneva’s growth and gained a strong understanding of financial sustainability and where her passion for the disability sector flourished.

In February 2017, Carmel was delighted to be appointed as CEO RDNS NZ and return to further develop and strengthen it in preparation for our evolving NZ healthcare landscape. Carmel is extremely passionate about the provision of quality Home and Community Services and developing services that are sustainable and innovative for our communities to benefit from in the future.

Wendy Hoskin GM Health and Disability (Enliven), Presbyterian Support Northern

Wendy Hoskin

Wendy holds the position of General Manager Health and Disability (Enliven) for Presbyterian Support Northern. She has held that position since late 2020. Enliven provides Home and Community Based Services, Day Services and Individualised Funding Services across the Upper North Island from Taupo north. An area of passion for Wendy is improving support for people with Dementia living in the community and she has recently launched EnlivenPlus, a ground-breaking new service for people living with dementia in the Bay of Plenty.

Wendy has worked for PSN since 2014, originally as GM Development where she started and grew their Family Dispute Resolution Service FWRS. From there she held the role of Chief Operating Officer responsible for People and Culture, Finance, Information Services, Contract Management and Evaluation.

She has had more than 20 years’ experience in the health and social sectors working in management positions at Auckland DHB and Waikato DHB in both Operational Management (Ambulatory Services and Cardiovascular Services) and Funding and Planning Management.  Wendy is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds the Certificate in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors.  

Androulla Kotrotsos CEO and Director, Access Community Health

Androulla Kotrotsos

Androulla is the CEO & Managing Director at Access Community Health which includes the Total Care Health special nursing service, moving to this role in December 2022 after two and a half years holding the COO position.

Androulla is a practicing Registered Pharmacist, and it was this work in Community Pharmacy that sparked an interest in the wider health sector and how they can work together to help people in their day-to-day living. This led to many roles including at the Ministry of Health, Pharmacy Council, and Pharmaceutical companies, as well as in professional support roles for the Pharmacy profession, and a number of sector board governance roles. 
 
It is through the integrated work-stream that Androulla participated in that she saw first-hand the positive difference the Home and Community sector makes in people's lives every day, and what an essential workforce they are, and what a huge opportunity the current health reforms can present.

Androulla is Wellington based and a current board member of the Pharmaceutical Defence Association of NZ, and the Wellington Associated Pharmacy Group. 

Chief Executive

The Chief Executive of the Association is Carmela Petagna.

Contact Us

Home & Community Health Association

PO Box 5344

Wellington 6140

Home and Community Health

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