The board of ONZ is delighted to announce that we have welcomed many new members to the organisation over the last four months. With 85 members, ONZ truly represents the majority of ophthalmologists in New Zealand. This growth in membership is due to two factors, a more visible profile and a wish on behalf of ophthalmology to speak with one voice on current affairs.

With this voice, ONZ can unite our ophthalmologists, giving them the tools and techniques to deal with the many commercial issues in their field. This initiative is never more important than now with ophthalmologists facing many challenges in funding in both the private and public sectors. As their central representative body, we are forging relationships with providers and advisors. We are fortunate to have great resources on the board, but more importantly amongst our members. Let us not succumb to the Kiwi “she’ll be right” attitude, evidenced elsewhere, such as Auckland traffic and Hawke's Bay water, two prime examples of poor leadership and planning.

ONZ’s role to represent ophthalmologists and their patients’ interests can already be seen in our lobbying of insurers for the Xen implant, MIGs in general and Ozurdex. We have worked within the board but also had great engagement from Sonya Bennett to move a plan and direction forward, in a coordinated fashion, for funders to come to the party on technology for glaucoma care. Another example, with thanks to Rebecca Stack, is our support and facilitation of the Clinical Leaders Forum on 27 March in Wellington. Plus, there is our Business Forum, ‘The Other Matters’ (see below) which will be run just after the RANZCO NZ Branch meeting in May in Auckland.

We will be asking members to help us coordinate our efforts over the next few weeks by way of information and thoughts, but also by directing general, non-contract insurance queries to ONZ. This will help ophthalmologists to speak with one voice on behalf of all our members, old and new. We also expect to increase our presence at meetings and via email to let you all know we are now working in a unified fashion to amplify the voice of concerned New Zealand ophthalmologists.

ONZ: The Other Matters

This year, in an attempt to ensure more members can attend, we will hold our ONZ Business Forum on Saturday 12 May, from 5pm to 7 pm at the Hilton, directly following the RANZCO NZ Branch meeting. Please join us for this event and drinks afterwards. Invites will be issued shortly or see our website for information.

Finally, ONZ is helping to find placements for the RANZCO-sponsored ophthalmology leadership programme. If you are interested, or know of someone who is interested, please email us at admin@ophthalmologynz.co.nz.