THERE are fears hospital boards could soon be stripped of their powers, with shadow health minister Mark McArdle criticising Labor's decision to establish a new leadership executive to head Queensland Health.

Moves to establish an executive team to oversee the state's 16 health boards were recommended in a review of the health system last June.

Darling Downs Hospital and Health Board chair Mike Horan has been the head of the board, which oversees the region's hospitals, since 2009.

He said even if new leadership was introduced, he was confident there would be no change to health boards.

"The board system is going very well," Mr Horan said. "The Darling Downs board has been very successful in results and getting rid of wait lists.

"The board system was introduced as part of the national health reform in 2009 and in Queensland received bipartisan support.

"Queensland boards are currently in the process of being renewed, so all indications are they will continue to operate."

Mr McArdle said removing control from hospital boards could come at the expense of local knowledge.

"The new executive is made up of the Director General, Deputy Directors General, senior bureaucrats, the Queensland Ambulance Service Commissioner, all of whom work in Brisbane," Mr McArdle said.

"The Labor Government is silencing the voices of rural and regional Queenslanders and restricting rural and regional knowledge of what's happening in local hospitals."

Despite these remarks, Mr Horan said it was not worth speculating whether the future of the board system was in jeopardy.

"The Darling Downs board has led the way and we've been very successful with our results," he said.

"We've met our targets for emergency department throughput, and we were one of first areas to have no long waits for elective surgery since January 1, 2015 and as of now we're the first board area to have no significant long waits for specialist outpatients.

"Along with dental and increased breast screening, these are some of the indicators of the success of board system."

Hunter Review

  April 2015: The Queensland Health minister announced a review to examine the health department's structure, governance arrangements and organisational capability

  June 2015: The Hunter Review report recommended implementing a new leadership executive system taking overarching responsibility for the health system