New Zealand Medical Association welcomes long awaited health system reforms nzdoctor.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzdoctor.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Health Minister Andrew Little announces the Government plan to abolish the 20 DHBs.
A mega-agency – and a Māori agency – will replace the country’s DHBs. This is the most dramatic change to the health system in 20 years. Keith Lynch explains. Can we start with some context? Sure. Twenty years back, the Helen Clark-led Labour government introduced the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000, which led to the creation of 20 district health boards (DHBs) across the country. These organisations were set up to provide and fund healthcare in their regions. That’s one DHB for about every 250,000 New Zealanders, on average. But in reality they come in all shapes and sizes. The smallest, on the West Coast, is responsible for 32,000 people, while the Canterbury DHB is responsible for about 550,000.
The Week in Politics: High stakes in the health shakeup rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Owen and Carey Hume say district health boards provided a forum for local voices to have a say about health services.
A couple who campaigned for improvements to MidCentral Health’s mental health facilities are worried about the demise of district health boards in the Government’s health reforms. The Government announced this week all 20 boards with a mix of appointed and democratically-elected members would be disbanded, their powers transferred to one central body, Health New Zealand. Bay of Plenty couple Owen and Carey Hume’s daughter Erica died in 2014 after being an in-patient at Palmerston North Hospital’s mental health ward.
General comments
Associate Professor Tim Tenbensel, School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, comments:
“This morning’s announcement is truly a historic event. The changes proposed go significantly beyond what had been recommended by the Health and Disability Review Report last year. The big news is the abolition of District Health Boards, and their replacement with a single national organization, provisionally known as Health New Zealand, which will have four regional divisions, and a district or locality branches at local levels.
“The creation of a Maori Health Authority with commissioning powers is the other major innovation. Again, the scope of the MHA goes beyond what was recommended by the Simpson Review, and aligns more closely with the ‘dissenting’ view supported by the majority of the Review panel.