Cabinet has confirmed the appointment of Leausa Dr. Take Naseri as the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Health.

The appointment was made this afternoon during Cabinet’s weekly meeting and announced in a statement by the Press Secretariat.

Leausa had been acting as the Interim Director General during the transition period since the Ministry of Health and the National Health Services re-merged at the beginning of the year.

He was among four applicants who vied for the role. Cabinet did not reveal who the other three were.

But Cabinet is confident it has made the right choice given Leausa’s more than 25 years experience in the sector, including being a Consultant Specialist Physician, Public Health and Assistant Chief Executive Officer in 2010 with the Ministry of Health and having held the Director General position since 2014.

“Among his many achievements entail establishing and developing Samoa’s National Disease Surveillance (N.D.S.) and International Health Regulations (I.H.R.) Division within the Ministry in 2012,” the statement from Cabinet says.

“His population health background and distinguished clinical experience with his visionary approach, contributed to Samoa’s implementation of the W.H.O. N.C.D. Package of Essential Non-communicable disease interventions (P.E.N.), in the context of Samoa, now called the P.E.N. Fa’asamoa.

“He was conferred the award of the “Best Proposal” at the Pacific Health Ministers Meeting’s 20th Anniversary Yanuca in Fiji 2014.

“He also led Samoa’s first side event on N.C.D.s at the W.H.O. World Health Assembly (W.H.A.) 2014 and the Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.s) Conference, the same year.

“Under Dr Naseri’s guidance, the health sector in September 2017 was the first to develop a Disaster Risk Management (D.R.M.) Strategy for Samoa. The policy enabled the mainstreaming of climate change and health instruments across-sectors, and also assures the integrating of the I.H.R. 2005 and the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emergencies and Emerging Diseases III (APSED III); into all aspects of the strategy.

“Of significance, as the Director General of Health, Dr. Naseri since mid-2017 has led the re-organization of the realigned health system; with emphasis on prevention, research and population health. This further strengthens emphasis on patient-focused and on population health, targeting the decentralizing of health resources to communities and grassroots’ levels.”

Leausa holds a Masters in Public Health (M.P.H.) from the University of Queensland, Australia and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S.) from the University of Papua New Guinea.

He was a student of Samoa College. He had also served in American Samoa and in New Zealand in the fields of Anaesthesia and I.C.U, Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and Population Health.