The first meeting of the South Island neurosurgery governance board is being held today, at the Ministry of Health in Wellington.
Ministry of Health project manager David Graham said the last two board appointments - the independent neurosurgeon and the South Island iwi nominee - had not been finalised.
The inaugural meeting would mostly be "housekeeping" and he expected no major announcements to result, although the two remaining appointments would be discussed.
All future meetings would be held in the South Island, Mr Graham said.
Other members of the board, chaired by Melbourne neurosurgeon Prof Andrew Kaye, are district health board chairmen Joe Butterfield (Southern), Bruce Matheson (Canterbury) and Murray Cleverley (South Canterbury, representing the other South Island boards), University of Otago representative Prof Don Roberton and expert consumer adviser David Russell.
The board is to develop a new South Island neurosurgery service, its establishment recommended to Acting Director-general of Health Andrew Bridgman last year by an expert panel, in order to end an impasse between Southern and Canterbury DHBs about the provision of neurosurgery.
