Until Marion Guy gets a look at the terms of reference for the new National Health Board, she has little idea what she is in for.
The National Health Board's first meeting is in Wellington this Wednesday.

Marion is an elected member of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board and is among the 10 people appointed to the recently announced National Health Board.
Seven out of 10 of the appointees to Minister of Health Tony Ryall's new board are either doctors or nurses. Tony says the boards are to provide strong clinical leadership as well as financial and health management.
Marion is currently a part-time practice nurse in Tauranga, and was President of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from 2005-2009. She is currently on the NZNO Board of Directors, and is an elected member of the Bay of Plenty DHB. Prior to this, Marion was a senior nurse at Tauranga Hospital emergency department.
'We are not appointed to be associated with any particular organisation so I won't see myself as a Bay of Plenty DHB representative,” says Marion.
While some of the other National Health Board members are also district health board members, they were not appointed to represent their boards or their areas.
'As far as I can work out, it might be to provide oversight. The National Health Board reports directly to the minister. We will see just how that will work at the first meeting when we see the terms of reference and see exactly what's involved.”
The National Health Board is a new idea that hasn't been tried before. Marion says it may be a way of providing medical advice on health issues directly to the minister, without the advice first being channelled through the bureaucracy of the health ministry.
'I think it is a means of being able to keep the minister more informed through a body of individuals in the medical professions,” says Marion.
There are some pretty high powered people on the new board, representing a good mix of experience from the coal face – from people that are actually doing the work, says Marion.