The Wakatipu Health Reference Panel will comprise Drs Elinor Slater and James Reid, representing and selected by health professionals. Businessman, director and chairman of the Wakatipu Primary Health Organisation Tony Hill and financial adviser and author Martin Hawes were appointed as community representatives by the Queenstown Lakes District Council from public expressions of interest.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden and DHB representation will take the panel membership to seven.
"This panel will see through some important changes to the delivery of health in the Wakatipu," Ms van Uden said on Friday.
"It will be tasked to maintain a strong interface with the community and to adopt a facilitative and constructive approach."
The panel was one of the 21 recommendations made by the external National Health Board (NHB) panel to the Southern DHB in early September in the attempt to end years of deadlock on health service provision in the Wakatipu.
The NHB recommended a council representative chair the panel and membership was to include one primary care clinician, one secondary care clinician, at least two community representatives and a DHB representative, who would collectively liaise with the recommended "tier 2" DHB manager responsible for health services in the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts.
The Wakatipu Health Trust announced in October it would disband after more than eight years as a health watchdog in favour of the new panel. Trust chairman Craig Benington said he and fellow trustees saw no need to have two groups championing the same issues.
One of the first items the Wakatipu Health Reference Panel was expected to tackle was the looming tug-of-war between Queenstown and Clyde over where a CT scanner will be based.
The NHB recommended the DHB support a scanner for Central Otago in the Lakes District Hospital, despite efforts by Dunstan Hospital to acquire the diagnostic equipment. There is insufficient patient demand for two scanners across the Lakes and Central Otago districts.
The DHB decided in November the scanner location should be determined by the communities reaching consensus on the issue.
