He had held the role of chairman "long enough" and with key projects — the Observatory Retirement Village and contract negotiations with the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) — on track, Mr Berry presided over his last meeting last week.
"You get involved in a project and you can’t walk away from it halfway through," he said this week.
A new phase for the health company that runs Oamaru Hospital would begin once the blanks were filled in on the recently completed joint service review with the SDHB that outlined a new model of care for the district. The first phase for WDHS began after cuts to health services began to affect services — especially surgery — in the 1990s.
The company was formed in 1998 and Bruce Albiston and Ken Scott approached Mr Berry to take on the chairman’s duties.
Oamaru’s hospital at the time was opened in 1872. At its height it operated with 150 beds and a nurses’ training school, and full surgical services did not fit with modern medicine.
Only 30 beds were needed to deliver the services required and, with a $5million interest-free government loan, in 2000 the new, more central, Oamaru Hospital opened.
"The hospital on the hill was a hopeless case, but there was a very strong emotional tie for those in the community to the hospital — it had been the place for those in need over decades. It was a very emotive issue for it to be moving away.
"It was an emotional issue pure and simple. And, I guess, a lack of understanding that health and hospitals, the way in which they work, had moved on.
"We have got to have a hospital in a district like this for the place to prosper and continue.
"If we had lost the hospital and a reasonable level of services, Oamaru would have been a much less attractive place for people to live — especially older people."
WDHS has the support of the community and $18million in assets and carries no debt as Mr Berry steps down.
Incoming chairman Chris Swann has also been involved with the company since its inception, as the company’s chief financial officer before becoming a director in 2007.
He said Mr Berry had a "tremendous impact" on the health services in the district through his role with WDHS.
"He’s got passion, he has a vision, he loves the community, he’s a very skilled man, a very reasoned man, he’s made a tremendous contribution and he will be sorely missed."
Mr Swann, a Dunedin-based chartered accountant, said he believed the health company and health services for the district were headed towards a good place.
"There are going to be changes around the model of care around ... just the way of doing things," he said.
"I’m very optimistic about it. I think we have an opportunity here to create a state-of-the-art hospital with a state-of-the-art model of care."
Helen Algar has been appointed deputy chairwoman, and Oamaru GP Andrew Wilson will join the board of directors.
