Press release:

 

Putting a greater emphasis on primary healthcare and ensuring fairer access for all New Zealanders are two of the main drivers of health sector reforms announced today by Health Minister Andrew Little.

 

“We are going to put the emphasis squarely on primary and community healthcare and will do away with duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy between regions, so that our health workers can do what they do best – keep people well.

 

“The reforms will mean that for the first time, we will have a truly national health system, and the kind of treatment people get will no longer be determined by where they live,” Andrew Little said.

 

The reforms will see:

 

• All 20 district health boards replaced with a new Crown entity, Health New Zealand, which will be responsible for running hospitals and commissioning primary and community health services. It will have four regional divisions.
• Responsibility for public health issues will rest with a new Public Health Authority, and a new Māori Health Authority will monitor the state of Māori health and have the ability to commission services directly.

The system will be overseen by a strengthened Ministry of Health, which will also advise the Government on policy matters.

 

The changes are in response to the Health and Disability System Review (HDSR), which found the public health system was under stress and that a greater emphasis on primary healthcare had the greatest potential to improve New Zealanders’ health.

 

“The reforms herald a change in focus for the health system – we will treat people before they get sick so they don’t need to go to hospital, thereby taking the pressure off hospitals,” Andrew Little said.

 

“We all know how stretched our hospitals and specialist services are, and that’s largely because people are not getting the healthcare they need, when they need it, to stop them becoming seriously unwell.

 

“The reforms will also ensure the system is able to cope with the effects of an ageing population and respond more quickly to public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic,” Andrew Little said.

 

Associate Health Minister (Māori Health) Peeni Henare said while New Zealand’s health system performs well overall against most international comparisons, it has significant issues delivering for Māori who continue to lag behind in key health status indicators.

 

“Māori health has suffered under the current system for too long,” Peeni Henare said.

 

“We will legislate for a new independent voice – the Māori Health Authority – to drive hauora Māori and lead the system to make real change.

 

“It will have joint decision-making rights to agree national strategies, policies and plans that affect Māori at all levels of the system and it will work in partnership with Health New Zealand to ensure that service plans and the commissioning of health services drives improvement,” Peeni Henare said.

 

Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said it is important to shift the focus of the health system to prevention.

 

“A Ministry of Health with strengthened expertise and a strategic focus will mean we can address our long-standing challenges like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.”

 

“We are also building on the lessons learnt from COVID-19 with a new Public Health Agency providing the technical expertise in the Ministry, and Public Health Units acting as a joined-up national service, so we are better equipped to fight future outbreaks and pandemics,” Ayesha Verrall said.

 

Andrew Little says the changes are the first phase in the Government’s response to the HDSR.

 

“We know there is more to do – particularly around Disability Support Services and we have asked for more advice on that – and we are committed to working with the sector as we continue to update our health system,” Andrew Little said.

 

“New Zealand has an ageing and increasingly diverse population and our health system must change to reflect that and to meet the challenges it will bring.”

 

The reforms will be phased in over three years, to make sure existing services - including the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme - are not disrupted.

 

See here for full documents about the reforms https://dpmc.govt.nz/our-business-units/transition-unit/response-health-and-disability-system-review/information

 

I hope I heard it correctly that all our patient notes and such will be in one place, seems like a pain if you move doctors that all that data has to be transfered. 

Also good to see technology will be given some focus, the manage my health app for example is super out of date.

DjShadow:

I hope I heard it correctly that all our patient notes and such will be in one place, seems like a pain if you move doctors that all that data has to be transfered. 

Also good to see technology will be given some focus, the manage my health app for example is super out of date.

This is excellent news in my opinion.  I've been bleating a long time about why we have 20 separate bodies, with heavy administrative overhead, essentially all doing the same thing .

floydbloke:

This is excellent news in my opinion.  I've been bleating a long time about why we have 20 separate bodies, with heavy administrative overhead, essentially all doing the same thing .

Will this be another KiwiBuild sized disaster in the making? 

The DHB ideology had been something Labour had been obsessed by for several decades before finally implementing it in 2001. After our health reforms in the '90s lots of people had warned of the risks of moving down this path but they seemed to be ignored at the time, and we ultimately ended up with a system that was fundamentally flawed and that no Government since has wanted to touch because of the risk of change.

Right now the risk in the change, and whether this can actually be accomplished.

Can't help but think this is a good thing. The DHBs ostensibly are meant to ensure healthcare is appropriately delivered for their local communities but they seem highly ineffective. Seems like this will reduce a lot of overhead and bloat in the health sector.

Geektastic: I love this idea:

“We will treat people before they get sick so they don’t need to go to hospital, thereby taking the pressure off hospitals,” Little said.”

 

political BS, that all . Talk is easy, actions are hard AND ridiculously expensive.

So he will bring waiting lists down to zero then ? No one will be waiting for treatment, no one waiting for surgery .
That wont ever happen, because it would require a huuuuge govt spend up .

All that will happen from all this, is centralized control . That wont solve any of the big issues with our health system.

1101:

 

So he will bring waiting lists down to zero then ? No one will be waiting for treatment, no one waiting for surgery .

 

Sorry, I missed where Little (or anyone) said that.  Can you pop up a link please.

antonknee:

 

Can't help but think this is a good thing. The DHBs ostensibly are meant to ensure healthcare is appropriately delivered for their local communities but they seem highly ineffective. Seems like this will reduce a lot of overhead and bloat in the health sector.

 

That is the desire, but what will probably happen is that the bloat will simply move from being "the local DHB" to being "the local branch of Health NZ"... 

Yes there will hopefully be some standardisation of treatment availability, BUT health demands grow every year and need to be funded, this will all end up as nothing unless funding is provided to expand the services that some areas are lacking...

Also, While local DHBs were pretty useless.  without them, there is the danger that the big centres will scoop up all the funding by saying we can provide services more efficiently and people will need to travel more for treatment..

.. which might not be a great vote winner (although with my cynical political hat on, they will likely mainly be in rural blue electorates anyway) 

antonknee:

 

Can't help but think this is a good thing. The DHBs ostensibly are meant to ensure healthcare is appropriately delivered for their local communities but they seem highly ineffective. Seems like this will reduce a lot of overhead and bloat in the health sector.

 

The risk however (and we don't know lots of the details) is that it may achieve none of this. What if reducing the overhead and bloat simply results in regional care being made worse and people being forced to travel say from Northland to Auckland for treatment as local treatments are cut and the focus moves away from local care?

Earbanean:

 

1101:

 

So he will bring waiting lists down to zero then ? No one will be waiting for treatment, no one waiting for surgery .

 

 

Sorry, I missed where Little (or anyone) said that.  Can you pop up a link please.

 

“We will treat people before they get sick so they don’t need to go to hospital, thereby taking the pressure off hospitals,” Little said.”

So, to do that, waiting lists for treatment will need to be zero . We have the issue with those on waiting lists getting sicker & even dying .
Its just political spin.

Press release:

 

The system will be overseen by a strengthened Ministry of Health, which will also advise the Government on policy matters.

 

Hopefully "strengthened" means gutted and rebuilt, but I suspect it will just be more of the same. Bureaucracy doing what it does best -- sustaining itself and expanding.