O’Shea tribute

SOUTHERN District Health Board commissioner Kathy Grant yesterday paid tribute to the ‘‘amazing’’ and lengthy contribution made by SDHB deputy chief executive Lexie O’Shea.

At a meeting of the SDHB’s hospital advisory committee, Mrs Grant reflected that Mrs O’Shea would soon be leaving her roles as SDHB deputy chief executive and chief operating officer.

The longserving executive had also been chief operating officer of the now defunct Southland District Health Board before it merged with Otago in 2010.

Mrs O’Shea has been appointed as the general manager of clinical services at the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board. She is due to leave the SDHB this month and will take up her new role in September.

Her SDHB roles will be disestablished as part of a restructure announced earlier this year.

Mrs Grant praised Mrs O’Shea’s 40year career, which had begun as a trainee medical laboratory technologist in Invercargill.