A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
Forget amalgamating District Health Boards and which other DHB would be a better fit for our region — they will all disappear as the Government combines a fragmented and overly-bureaucratic public health system into one national service called Health New Zealand over the next three years.
Alongside this new Crownentity will be a Maori Health Authority with joint decision-making rights for healthcare strategies and policies that affect Maori — and, critically, some of its own spending and commissioning power. This is a key part of the transformation, aimed squarely at removing unconscionable inequities in access and outcomes; such as Maori and Pacific peoples being twice as likely to die young from conditions that could have been treated.
Health NZ will run all hospitals and other health services, taking a nationwide system approach. It will commission primary and community health services as well, with a big focus in this area to keep people from getting sick and to take pressure off our hospitals.
“The reforms mean that for the first time, we will have a national health system, and the kind of treatment people get will no longer be determined by where they live,” said Health Minister Andrew Little this morning in announcing the unexpectedly radical shake-up.
Health NZ will have four regional divisions, and district offices throughout the country with delegated authority, “so front-line health workers and communities have a real say in decisions about the health services they need”.
If the mega-merger of polytechnics is anything to go by, where half the CEOs have quit since the 16 institutions were merged a year ago — despite management not shifting to a central executive team until late next year — we can expect personnel changes as the restructuring starts to take shape.
The Ministry of Health will no longer directly fund and commission health services. Little says it will be “leaner, sharper, more agile and focused on its core role” of setting strategic direction, monitoring the performance of the public health system and holding organisations to account for delivery.
There will also be a Public Health Agency within the ministry that will centralise public health work, replacing a network of 30 public health organisations.
