A two-month wait for a new chair for the Hawke's Bay District Health Board is unacceptable, says Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule.
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Māori banker Shayne Walker was tipped to replace outgoing chair Kevin Atkinson, but concerns about his lack of governance experience meant he did not have the endorsement from many of the region's leaders, including Ngāti Kahungunu.
The wait meant the DHB would hold its first meeting today, nearly two months after the local body elections, without a new chair or government appointees.
Seven board members were elected at the local body elections on 12 October. The government appoints a further four, including a chair.
Nearly two months has passed with no official word on who those government appointees will be.
Outgoing chair Kevin Atkinson declined to comment on the prospect of him not returning to the position this term.
"I would not want to speculate. I have had no official communication on this from the minister's office yet," he said.
He was the highest polling candidate at the local elections, but would not comment on whether he would remain on the board if he was not chair.
Despite this, Mr Atkinson was set to chair the new board's first meeting today.
Due to retire at the election, Mr Atkinson was shoulder-tapped by Health Minister David Clark in August asking him to re-stand on the basis he would be appointed as chair for another term.
However, Mr Walker's name was subsequently put forward as a possible candidate by the Prime Minister's advisor Julia Haydon Carr, who had previously worked with Mr Walker at Hawke's Bay District Health Board.
Mr Walker, BNZ's head of Māori Business, did not respond to requests for comment.
Hastings District Councillor Bayden Barber, who was also chair of the primary health organisation Hawke's Bay Health, was also considered as a potential candidate for chair, though was understood to no longer be in the running.
The wait for a new chair was "completely unacceptable" considering the challenges the new board faced, Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule said.
"The Hawke's Bay DHB currently has an interim CEO, two other senior executive roles in finance and operations are on leave or not being filled, so I think the minister has been incredibly slack."
"Two months on there has been no word on who the government appointees are. It's completely unacceptable."
Those senior positions cannot be filled until a new chair is in place.
He said the DHB was also facing rising debt, staff pressures and long elective waiting times, which could not be tackled effectively until a full board and executives were appointed.
A spokesperson for David Clark said there was "no delay", because there was a formal appointment process to go through, and an announcement would be made in early December.
On 11 October, a day before the local body elections, the region's mayors and Hawke's Bay Regional Council chair wrote to Mr Clark urging him to ensure a speedy appointment of a new DHB chair and chief executive to help overturn the region's dire health statistics.
"The use of cannabis in Hawke's Bay remains significantly higher than the rest of New Zealand and synthetic substances are a serious concern.
The leaders were "ashamed" that so many children lived below the poverty line, 22 percent of young Māori were not in employment or training and the suicide rate was at its highest rate."
"The appointment of chair and ceo of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board is critically significant to the future vision, leadership and outcomes of Hawke's Bay," the letter said.