Names at top of the alphabet sweep DHB seats

Ian Ward. Photo / Brett Phibbs

An alphabetical listing of candidates appears to have helped drive a clean-out of the Auckland District Health Board.

Five of the seven elected members of the new board have surnames that start with A, B or C - and consequently were listed near the top of voting forms.

Three sitting members, including former Deputy Prime Minister Bob Tizard, were voted off, and one, Dr Ian Scott, stood down.

The four new faces are health entrepreneur Lee Mathias, Auckland regional councillor Judith Bassett, pharmacist Peter Aitken - all from the Citizens & Ratepayers ticket - and City Vision's Robyn Northey, a former health manager and the wife of an Auckland Council seat-winner, former MP Richard Northey.

C&R now has four members on the board, City Vision two and there is one independent. DHBs each have up to 11 members, a maximum of four being Government appointees.

Dumped Auckland DHB member Ian Ward, a former chief financial officer of the board, was yesterday disappointed at his loss and said the decision to list candidates alphabetically on the ballot paper had - as he feared - played a role.

"I was the only one who voted against that."

Boards can choose whether to list names alphabetically or randomly. In the Auckland region, only Counties Manukau DHB chose the random method.

That board has gained two new faces, Lyn Murphy and David Collings, who replace members who did not seek re-election.

Ms Murphy, of C&R, trained in occupational therapy and is now a senior management lecturer. She was on the Howick Community Board, but was not elected to its local board replacement.

Mr Collings, a member of the Residents and Ratepayers ticket, was a Manukau City councillor who failed in his bid for a Super City seat but won a place on the Howick Local Board. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the DHB in 2007.

Waitemata is another board to experience a big shake-out. All seven elected members were seeking another term, but just three of them succeeded. The newcomers are Auckland regional councillors Sandra Coney and Christine Rankin, former long-distance running star Allison Roe, and a 29-year-old doctor, James Le Fevre, of Birkenhead.

Dr Le Fevre could not be contacted last night, but said in his candidate statement that he is an emergency department doctor who has worked in Australia and New Zealand, including at North Shore Hospital.

A member of the Resident Doctors' Association, whose members are considering a proposed settlement of their collective contract dispute with DHBs nationally, he said his priorities included giving power back to senior medical staff over the running of hospitals.

Another was the need to improve access to higher levels of care in the community to avoid using hospital beds for, in particular, elderly people who did not have an acute condition but needed a higher level of care than was available where they lived.