First Community Reps Appointed with New Board for Bay of Plenty Hospitals

Members of the new boards for the two hospital and health services in the Bay of Plenty, including the first community representatives, were announced today by Health Minister Bill English and Associate Health Minister Tuariki John Delamere.

"This announcement is a milestone on two counts. With this new board we have been able to appoint four people nominated from the community. These are the first community representatives appointed to a hospital board under the initiative we announced last year," said the Ministers.

"The second milestone is that with the same people appointed to the boards of both Eastbay Health and Western Bay Health we are supporting the Government's objective of encouraging boards to work together to improve health services throughout their regions.

"This Bay of Plenty initiative is a significant step in giving the people running both hospitals the ability, motivation and authority to work closely together for the good of the region," they said.

The chairman of the boards will be Mr Max Toy, a current director of Western Bay Health and a Tauranga-based director on a number of boards.

Other board members are:

• Mr Robin Wray, the current chairman of Eastbay Health, who will be deputy chairman of the new board. He is a business consultant, farmer and company director.
• Mr Douglas Leeder, a current director of Eastbay Health and the deputy chairman on the board of Bay Milk Products.
• Mr Aubrey Temara, a current director of Eastbay Health, the manager for two Maori trusts in Rotorua, and chairman and trustee of several others.
• Miss Lee Mathias, a current director of Eastbay Health, and the managing director of Birthcare NZ Ltd in Auckland.
• Mrs Joan Kehely, a co-director of Park Enterprises Ltd and a former Mayor of Western Bay of Plenty District Council.
• Mr Monte Ohia, the Maori Education Director at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and co-ordinator of Treaty of Waitangi Claims for Tauranga Moana.
• Mr Mark Arundel, a Tauranga-based businessman with involvement in owning and running pharmacies.

Messrs Wray, Leeder and Temara, and Mrs Kehely, were nominated by local councils.

"We were delighted with the strength of nominations from the local councils. Three of the nominations were already board members and Mrs Kehely, who is a registered nurse, is very involved in community affairs and will be a welcome addition to the board.

"We are also pleased to be able to appoint two other new directors, Messrs Ohia and Arundel, along with Miss Mathias from the current Eastbay Board and Mr Toy from the Western Bay Board. We are confident the new board has an excellent mix of business and clinical skills as well as the support of the community," said the Ministers.