After steering Taranaki through Covid, Dr Jonathan Jarman is retiring and heading north

Dr Jonathan Jarman is a fan of mosquito advocacy.

It’s basically bugging people. And keeping on bugging them. But in a polite way.

He learnt it in Canada, he says.

“It’s a process that indigenous people in Canada use for changing policy. You come with friends. And ultimately, people will see the wisdom of what you want.

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“A small insect can really ruin your day.”

It’s a form of advocacy he has employed during his 10 years as Taranaki’s Medical Officer of Health. A position he has just retired from to move to Whangarei with his wife Ruth to spend more time with their two grandchildren.

And it was the method he used to convince the New Plymouth District Council to notify the relevant hapu/marae of all sewage spills into waterways in the district.

People don’t realise that iwi have a guardianship role in the area where they live, he said.

“If we look at true partnership, iwi and hapu should know about things that are happening in their environment, so they can actually warn their people who might collect food from the river.”

Dealing with local government was one reason the role of Medical Officer of Health was set up.

It’s a branch of medicine that needs specialist training, just like a surgeon, Jarman said.

“It started in 1900 when they were called district health officers. There was a fear bubonic plague was coming to New Zealand.”

The other reason was central government was concerned Local Government wasn’t doing enough about sewage disposal and ensuring safe drinking water.

“So my predecessors had to wave a big stick at times at local authorities to get them to have proper sewage systems and proper drinking water supplies.”

Public health is about people and the ways they are impacted by and connected to our world, he said.

“I think a really important part of public health is to find out about the lived experience of people.”

Such as Covid-19.

Public health doctors have been training for pandemics their whole career, he said.

“There was the influenza pandemic of 2009, which turned out to be a bit of a fizzer. But it showed how it came here and spread very quickly. There wasn’t a lot we could do about it.”

And then Covid arrived and “just about did me in. I was largely a sole practitioner for all of Taranaki.”

“During the lockdown I worked every day for six or seven weeks. I was on call 24/7. So it was extremely hard.”

And because his job was high profile people were constantly looking at his decisions. And, he got feedback, and it was negative, he said. But not all of it. Jarman and his team got a mention from the World Health Organisation as an example of best practice for their handling of a Covid outbreak in Stratford.

“We managed to put delta back in the box. That’s pretty amazing. But it was through the combined efforts of a whole heap of people from the ESR, who did the wastewater testing, doctors, nurses, iwi, health providers, pharmacists, Covid testers, Stratford District Council, the District Health Board, and, of course, the community who came forward and did the testing.”

That’s a good example of how public health works, he said.

As is the intersectoral group on hoarding and squalor in Taranaki, that he chaired for 10 years, and is acknowledged as an example of best practice in Aotearoa.

Every community has people living in homes that aren’t suitable for habitation.

After visiting one house, Jarman felt sick for the rest for the day.

“One of the environmental health officers went into a home and was off work for a week, it affected him so much.”

Interestingly, a lot of people affected are actually quite happy where they’re living, he said.

The committee looked at ways they could improve the quality of life for those affected and work with them, so they could either safely stay where they were or move into an aged care facility.

Jarman was working as a GP in Twizel when he realised that while he enjoyed family health, he wasn’t happy and wanted to look at the health of populations.

“That’s how I got into public health medicine.”

How he got to Taranaki was kind of similar. He wanted a change. The Jarmans were living in Whangarei, there weren’t yet any grandchildren, so they moved south to Taranaki.

“We chose Taranaki because it was such an upbeat place. You think it’s just a grey town on the coast, and it’d be not very nice. But you come here, it’s so dynamic, and it’s got old fashioned values, but also it’s quite modern and quite trendy. We came here for five years, and we have stayed for 10.”

On Friday, he was at the climate change protest in New Plymouth. He cycled in on his yellow bike, nicknamed the banana bike.

Jarman won’t own up to how many bikes he owns. But he reckons now he’s on a fixed income he won’t be able to afford any more.