My wife, Rachel Downey, was a health and social affairs journalist who went on to become a communications strategist at the Department of Health. There she worked at the heart of health policy, translating complex and often sensitive issues into communications that the public could understand. It was demanding, important work and she was exceptionally good at it.
Most recently Rachel, who has died of renal failure aged 60, was head of public relations at the Office of the Patient Safety Commissioner. It was a role that felt, in many ways, made for her, as the Office exists to amplify the voices of patients who have been harmed, to hold systems to account and to drive change where it is most needed.
