Auckland District Health Board

Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) is a district health board that provides healthcare in the Auckland Region in New Zealand, mainly on the Auckland isthmus. This district health board has existed since 2001 and is governed by a part-elected, part-appointed board.
History.
The Auckland District Health Board, like most other district health boards, came into effect on 1 January 2001 established by the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000.
Geographic area.
The area covered by the Auckland District Health Board is defined in Schedule 1 of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 and based on territorial authority and ward boundaries as constituted as at 1 January 2001. The area covered by the Auckland DHB is identical with that of the former Auckland City. The area can be adjusted through an Order in Council.
Facilities.
The DHB controls and runs many facilities within the Auckland Region including, but not limited to:
Governance.
The initial board was fully appointed. Since the 2001 local elections, the board has been partially elected (seven members) and in addition, up to four members get appointed by the Minister of Health. The minister also appoints the chairperson and deputy-chair from the pool of eleven board members. Elections are held every three years as part of the country's local elections As defined in the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000, persons elected or appointed "come into office on the 58th day after polling day", which thus always falls into December.
Chairpersons.
Richard Waddel was the initial chairperson, appointed by Health Minister Annette King. In December 2001, Waddel was succeeded by Wayne Brown, who had since January 2001 been chairing Northland DHB and was now taking on Auckland and Tairāwhiti DHBs, i.e. chairing two boards in parallel. During the 2001–2004 local government term, Brown was forced to resign from Tairāwhiti DHB, where he had been elected, due to an administrative error by the Ministry of Health. The underlying legislation, the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000, did not allow a person elected to a district health board to also be a member of a second board, but this had been overlooked. Brown remained the appointed chair of the Auckland DHB. Brown was reappointed by King for another term in October 2004, but the new Health Minister, David Cunliffe, chose a new chair for Auckland from December 2007 when he appointed Pat Snedden. The next Health Minister, Tony Ryall, replaced Brown in December 2010 with Lester Levy, and Levy was also put in charge of Waitemata DHB. Levy was reappointed in December 2013 by Ryall and in December 2016, the then Health Minister Jonathan Coleman appointed Levy to the third board in the Auckland region – Counties Manukau DHB. Levy had first been appointed to the Waitemata DHB as a member in June 2009 was to have reached the statutory limit of nine years in June 2018 and as it was his understanding that there should be one chairperson for all three DHBs in the Auckland region, he intended to resign his roles at that point. However, he had been appointed onto a Ministerial Advisory Group by Health Minister David Clark and to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest, he foreshadowed his resignation in December 2017 with effect in January 2018. Clarke reappointed Snedden as Auckland DHB chairperson from 1 June 2018 and confirmed him in the December 2019 reappointment round.
The following table gives a list of chairpersons of Auckland District Health Board:
First elected board (December 2001 – 2004).
Seven board members were elected in the October 2001 local elections. The elections were held at a ward-level and the first-past-the-post voting system (FPP) was used. Five of the successful seven elected members had an affiliation to a ticket. The Health Minister announced the appointment of the chairperson in mid-November 2001. It took until late December before the remaining three appointments were announced; the minister's appointment for deputy chair was given to one of the elected members.
Current board (2019–2022).
The following members serve on the current board:
Demographics.
Auckland District Health Board serves a population of 545,640 people (2018/19 projection).