Karen Tully new chair of South West Hospital and Health board

It's one of the measures Karen Tully will use to guide her in her new role.

Ms Tully has stepped up from the deputy chair's position to take over from Griffith University professor and leading Queensland public servant Jim McGowan AM.

Mr McGowan, who chaired the South West HHS from 2017 to May 2020, is now the chairman of the Metro North HHS, after co-authoring a report for Queensland Health in March 2019 on its governance framework.

According to Health Minister Steven Miles, the South West HHS will continue to benefit from Ms Tully's broad board experience, local knowledge and wide-ranging skills.

"Ms Tully has been a board member since 2017 and has experience in the fields of education and governance,'' Mr Miles said.

"As a Charleville resident, she is well known in the south west and familiar with all the issues in the region."

As well as her role with the South West HHS, Ms Tully chairs the Rural Financial Counselling Service Southern Queensland and is a director on the Southern Queensland Landscapes NRM board.

She became known to many south western families in her 18 years with the Charleville School of the Air, three as a teacher, nine as the deputy principal and six as the principal, between 1990 and 2007.

Ms Tully said it was her love of governance, helping build financial sustainability and forward momentum that drove her.

"That plus a passion for rural and remote," she said. "I'm a long term resident of Charleville and I want our voice to be heard."

Ms Tully said health was one of those over-arching things that mattered to everyone at every stage of life, and that everyone had different needs, all of which had to be met.

She hoped that by framing decisions around wellness levels, the health system would play a key role in supporting people's choices.

Closing the gap for indigenous people and mental health, which she said had taken a battering in the bush in recent years, were other priorities, along with financial sustainability.

"That's not an issue at the moment but COVID-19 is putting a different strain on the government's budget - we have to be vigilant," she said.

She said South West HHS was working in all those arenas, all of which involved being proactive.

Mr Miles said Ms Tully would provide nominations for the appointment of a new deputy chair after the new board was constituted.

Two new members - Mark Waters and Kerry Crumblin - have been appointed to the SWHHS board to replace John Scott and Stewart Gordon, who did not seek reappointment.

Dr Waters is the director of patient safety at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane and has an extensive background of clinical and managerial work at metropolitan and regional hospitals throughout Queensland and with the World Health Organization.

Ms Crumblin is the Chief Executive of the Cunnamulla Aboriginal Corporation for Health and has an extensive background in community engagement, human resource management, policy development and project management.

She is an Aboriginal woman of the Mardigan people of far south west Queensland and has lived in Cunnamulla most of her life.

Ray Chandler has been reappointed to his position on the board, while Claire Alexander, Cr Fiona Gaske and Jan Chambers are continuing their current terms.

The 16 boards throughout Queensland are responsible under the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011 for local performance of their health service and the delivery of public health services within their communities.