District Health Board (New Zealand)

District Health Boards are health management units accountable to the Ministry of Health. These have existed since 1 January 2001 when the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 came into force . These units manage hospitals within their area and fund some primary care provisions.

History

see the main article History of the Health System in New Zealand

District Health Boards were first introduced as an idea in the 1970s in the Green and White Paper suggested by the then in-power Labour government. This was part of a plan to nationalise primary health care as the Social Security Act of 1938 had originally intended.

Labour subsequently lost the election to Rob Muldoon's National Party in the 1975 election. Muldoon's government chose however to slowly implement these reforms in trial Area Health Boards.

Following the neo-liberal Big Bang which occurred in the 1990s the DHBs were renamed Regional Health Authorities (RHA). These RHAs were amalgamated in 1997 to form the Health Funding Authority.

The election of the Labour-Alliance government in 1999 saw the return of DHBs in the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000.

Board members

The DHBs are governed by boards, which consist of up to 11 members: seven elected by the public every three years, and up to four appointed by the Government's Minister of Health. Voting for public-elected DHB board members occurs through the Single Transferable Vote system.

Running

The DHBs are given a set of objectives by the Ministry of Health. The DHBs have a degree of autonomy in how they choose to achieve these. In contrast to their predecessors, the Regional Health Authorities, the DHBs are non-profit providers.

The performance of individual DHBs is monitored by the DHB Funding and Performance Directorate.

Locations

There are 21 DHBs, each of these cater to different geographical populations:

Auckland DHB
Bay of Plenty DHB
Canterbury DHB
Capital & Coast DHB
Counties Manuaku DHB
Hawke's Bay DHB
Hutt Valley DHB
Lakes DHB
MidCentral DHB
Nelson Marlborough DHB
Northland DHB
Otago DHB
South Canterbury DHB
Southland DHB
Tairawhiti DHB
Taranaki DHB
Waikato DHB
Wairarapa DHB
Waitemata DHB
West Coast DHB
Whanganui DHB

References

District Health Boards from Ministry of Health, last updated January 2005

DHB Elections from Ministry of Health, last updated 21 January 2005

DHB Funding and Performance from Minstry of Health.

External link

New Zealand Ministry of Health: District Health Boards