Wanaka resident and prominent health campaigner Bev Clark has been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to health.

Calling herself a "born and bred Southlander”, Bev was born in Winton and farmed in Hokonui with her late husband Boyd Clark. While there, she became a vocal advocate for Winton’s maternity service. She served as chair of the Central Southland Health Trust and the Winton Birthing Unit for eight years, during which time she helped develop the facility, protecting access to maternity care in the region.

Bev is also a veteran of the campaign to retain Dunstan Hospital at Clyde. She was chairperson of Central Otago Health Services Ltd, which was set up in 1999 to manage Dunstan Hospital, a role that won her some notoriety. COHSL was famously called "petulant” in 2003 by Labour health minister Annette King when the board threatened a mass resignation to protest the run-down state of the hospital.

The board was backed at a public meeting attended by an estimated 1000 people, and the government eventually came to the table with more than $7 million towards a rebuild. Bev received an award at Dunstan’s 150th celebrations in 2013 acknowledging her work as chair of COHSL.

As director of the Southern Regional Health Authority she had responsibility for provision of health services in the southern region, then, as director of the Health Funding Authority, for health services across New Zealand. She also chaired the Consumer Liaison Committee for the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, and was appointed for a term of six years to the New Zealand Psychologists’ Board.

Bev moved to Wanaka in 1997, where she worked for nineteen years as a marriage celebrant. She is a founding executive member of the Celebrants’ Association in New Zealand, to which she was awarded an honourary life membership in 2014.

A total of 177 New Zealanders (70 women and 107 men) have been named in the Queen's 90th birthday honours this year, including two dames, five knights and 66 new members of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

PHOTO: Celebrants' Association of New Zealand