Adding targets to law will pave the way for faster care, real results: health minister
Simeon Brown, health minister, has announced the Cabinet’s recent approval of amendments to the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022, with the government planning to introduce the legislation to Parliament in the near future.
In a news release from the government, Brown said the amendments aim to codify certain health targets, enhance Health New Zealand’s performance, improve patients’ health outcomes, and make the health system more unambiguous, accountable, transparent, connected, efficient, and effective.
“After years of bureaucracy and confusion, the health system lost its focus,” Brown said in the news release. “The previous government scrapped health targets, centralised decision-making with no accountability, while every single health target went backwards meaning patients waiting longer for the care they need.”
According to Brown, with the proposed reforms, the government seeks to ensure access to timely and quality healthcare, refrain from bogging down the health system, and refocus the system on delivering swifter care, shorter wait times, higher immunisation rates, and real results.
“The previous Government’s reforms created a bloated system where no one was truly accountable for delivery,” Brown said in the news release. “We’re changing that.”
The government said the current legislation prioritises bureaucracy instead of patients and includes multiple charters and plans, leading to confusion and fragmentation. With the proposed amendments, the government explained that it aims to reduce red tape and require every population strategy to give effect to health targets.
In its news release, Brown shared that the government is working to address infrastructure issues by creating an infrastructure committee focused on infrastructure delivery and making infrastructure a key function of Health New Zealand.
Brown noted that the planned reforms aim to strengthen the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee (HMAC) and clarify the role of local iwi-Māori Partnership Boards (IMPBs), who will keep interacting with communities and offering the HMAC direct advice seeking to support the decisions of the health minister and Health New Zealand’s board.
“This means the board can focus on lifting system performance where it matters most: for patients,” Brown said in the government’s news release.
“These changes are about one thing – putting patients back at the centre,” Brown added. “We’re rebuilding a health system that delivers real outcomes, not just organisational charts.”