DHB Election results see changes to all boards

New Zealand’s 21 District Health Boards will have between one and five new elected members when boards take office in two months time.

Results for all 21 District Health Board (DHB) elections were released yesterday after voting closed at midday on Saturday. There were seven elected positions available on each DHB board.

The Ministry of Health's DHB Governance Manager Dr Bruce Anderson says of the 147 members elected across the country, about two-thirds are incumbent board members, either currently elected or appointed to their boards.

'There is also a good spread of geographic representation on the vast majority of boards, and it's great to see a good number of new members coming into the DHB system to offer fresh perspectives at the board table,' Dr Anderson says.

'We have also identified 11 Māori candidates as having been elected to nine DHBs, which is one more DHB than in 2004, and two Pacific candidates have been elected to two DHBs,' he says.

‘In terms of the gender split, around 45 percent of members are women and 55 percent men, which again is an improvement on 2004’.

Tairawhiti, Bay of Plenty, MidCentral, Otago and Southland DHBs’ elected board members remain largely unchanged with only one new member elected to each board.

Auckland and West Coast have experienced the biggest changes with five new board members elected to each. Canterbury also has four new members with Eleanor Carter being elected and her mother, incumbent member Heather Carter, missing out.

Northland DHB's Daniel Bolton, 30, is the youngest ever person to be elected to a DHB. The New Zealand Olympic team chef de mission Dave Currie has been elected to Waikato DHB and former Minister of Health Bob Tizard has been elected to Auckland DHB.

Health Minister Pete Hodgson will now appoint up to another four members to each DHB board to balance any gaps in skills, experience and/or representation. He will also appoint chairs and deputy chairs from amongst the elected and appointed members.

DHB election results can be found on www.localgovt.co.nz by clicking on the 'vote' logo. Final results for the DHB elections are expected to be confirmed early next week and the new boards take office on 10 December 2007.