Ron Paterson 
LLB (Hons), BCL Oxon
Ron Paterson was appointed Health and Disability Commissioner in March 2000 and his term was renewed for a further five years in March 2008. He has played a leading role in health care law, ethics and policy in New Zealand for the past decade. Ron helped draft New Zealand’s Code of Consumers’ Rights (1996), which he now administers as Commissioner – assessing and investigating complaints about the quality of health care and disability services, and advocating for consumers on policy issues.
With law degrees from Auckland and Oxford Universities, Ron was a visiting law professor at the Universities of Ottawa and British Columbia in the mid-1980s, before returning to the University of Auckland as senior lecturer in health care law (1986-99). He has taught and researched in the United States, as Fulbright Visiting Professor of Biomedical Ethics at Case Western Reserve University (1993) and Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy at Georgetown University (1998-99). He worked as Deputy Director-General, Safety & Regulation in the New Zealand Ministry of Health (1999-2000).
Ron is recognised internationally for his expertise in regulation of patients’ rights and healthcare quality improvement. He gave evidence on ‘Safeguarding Patients’ as an expert witness before the Shipman Inquiry in England (2004). In 2004-05 he chaired two major health system reviews in Australia: the Review of the Assessment of Overseas-Trained Surgeons, and the Review of National Arrangements for Safety and Quality of Health Care in Australia. Ron is co-editor of the textbook Medical Law in New Zealand (2006).
With law degrees from Auckland and Oxford Universities, Ron was a visiting law professor at the Universities of Ottawa and British Columbia in the mid-1980s, before returning to the University of Auckland as senior lecturer in health care law (1986-99). He has taught and researched in the United States, as Fulbright Visiting Professor of Biomedical Ethics at Case Western Reserve University (1993) and Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy at Georgetown University (1998-99). He worked as Deputy Director-General, Safety & Regulation in the New Zealand Ministry of Health (1999-2000).
Ron is recognised internationally for his expertise in regulation of patients’ rights and healthcare quality improvement. He gave evidence on ‘Safeguarding Patients’ as an expert witness before the Shipman Inquiry in England (2004). In 2004-05 he chaired two major health system reviews in Australia: the Review of the Assessment of Overseas-Trained Surgeons, and the Review of National Arrangements for Safety and Quality of Health Care in Australia. Ron is co-editor of the textbook Medical Law in New Zealand (2006).