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 Crown
entity 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”.
