Southland’s voice back on district health board
Southland’s voice is back on the Southern District Health Board with the first elected candidates since it was disassembled in 2015.
Representing the Southland constituency will be Terry King, who topped the polls, followed by Lesley Soper and Kaye Crowther, who ranked second and third respectively.
John Chambers topped the Otago constituency polls, followed by former Dunedin mayor Dave Cull, Ilka Beekhuis and Lyndell Kelly.
Health Minister Dr David Clark will elect the chairperson and up to four more members if he chooses.
Soper said it was time to bring the public voice back to the board. She said she was looking forward to working with King and Crowther to provide strong Southland representation.
Soper was also elected to the Invercargill City Council but said she could manage the workload. When she was an MP she was on three select committees and had also been a full-time student while being a councillor, she said.
Soper would like to see the DHB’s population funding formula evaluated for Southland and would also like the recommendations of the DHB’s endoscopic report followed through.
Crowther, who was an elected member of the Southland constituency of the board in 2013, said it had been too long since Southland had representation on the health board.
‘‘It is not about dwelling on the past – it’s about focusing on the future and moving forward.’’
Crowther said her priorities would be on mental health and suicide prevention, especially among young people.
While Crowther and Soper have both been on the board previously, King is new to the team.
King said he was impressed with the calibre of the candidates. Their wealth of experience meant any one of them would have done a good job of representing Southland, so to top the polls was humbling, he said.
Areas King would like to tackle include reopening Lumsden’s maternity centre and supporting the national cancer agency. Funding would be the key challenge, King said.
In 2015, the DHB was sacked by former health minister Jonathan Coleman and replaced by a commissioner team, largely due to financial mismanagement and a $42 million forecast deficit.
Commissioner Kathy Grant was only supposed to be in her role until the 2016 election but the board was exempted, which extended her time in the role.