New health minister `a strong replacement'

Jonathan Coleman doesn't foresee any big changes to the health service under his watch.

He's the new minister of health in Prime Minister John Key's cabinet, and he's been promoted to the front bench.

He says he'll be following on where his predecessor Tony Ryall left off. Mr Ryall retired after six years as health minister.

"I will be following Tony's approach, it wouldn't be common sense to make any big changes," he told NZ Newswire.

"The health targets have worked really well, and the DHB structure, so changing it isn't something we would be looking at."

Dr Coleman, a former GP, says he's thrilled to get the job.

"I've trained and worked as a doctor and then I went into politics, it brings those two strands together and I'm hugely excited."

Along with health, he's been given sport and recreation.

Mr Key says that's because he wants an emphasis on obesity prevention, and the two areas link well together.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully, who held the sport and recreation portfolio in the previous cabinet, will retain responsibility for high performance sport.

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New health minister `a strong replacement'