From The Minister's Desk

Board Appointments

New Boards

Last week I was pleased to announce the appointment of 79 new health directors, with the appointments taking effect from last Friday.

The new directors will augment the existing Hospital and Health Services (HHS) boards, providing a wider range of skills and a greater mix of local, Mäori and Pacific members as the boards prepare for their more extensive roles as District Health Boards (DHBs).

While the composition and skill mix of the new boards will help to reflect the needs of local communities, all board members must serve the interests of the whole community.

I would like to publicly record my thanks to retiring board members for their work. Some are very near the end of their terms, but others had longer to serve. The changes made are not a reflection of anything other than the need to build the most appropriate skill mix in each local board and our determination to make the boards as representative of local communities as possible. All retiring members can be proud of their commitment and contribution.

HHS boards have been managing their existing roles as well as preparing for their broader responsibilities as District Health Boards. This has been quite an onerous and difficult responsibility, and I am grateful for the work that has already been done by the boards. They still have much work to do for the rest of this year and next year.

I believe the combined strengths of the new and the experienced directors will help ensure they carry out this work efficiently.

Hon Annette King
Minister of Health

Seventy-nine new health directors have been appointed to the boards of the existing HHS Boards.

Most of the directors will be appointed to the DHBs' governance boards which are to be established under the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Bill when it is passed late this year, although there may be a few further changes at that time.

There are now 46 Mäori directors, of whom 34 are new appointments to their respective boards. All eight Pacific directors are new appointees.

There are far more women, 63 of the 171 directors, on the new boards, and there has been a significant reduction in the numbers of directors who come from outside the regions of individual boards, or who serve on more than one board. There are now only seven directors serving on more than one board, and all have been retained for their considerable experience.

There may also more be some more fine-tuning and extra appointments over the next few months.

Thirty current board members, including five serving on two or more of the 22 HHS boards, retired from the boards with effect from 25 August.

Training and briefing of directors will take place in early September.

The net cost of the additional HHS directors fees is approximately $221, 250.

The changes do not affect the decision to merge the boards of Canterbury Health and HealthLink South, and plans are proceeding to achieve that by October.

No new board members have been appointed to Tairawhiti Health. Wayne Brown will continue as a one-man board for the time being, but some shortlisted nominees for the board of Tairawhiti

Health will be reconsidered when it is time to appoint a full board.