Health Minister Simeon Brown blamed the delay in releasing the plan on the additional audit requirement, which was "imposed by the previous government". Photo: Calvin Samuel / RNZ
The lack of detail in the national health plan for how Health NZ will meet its lofty goals, or pay for them, is especially worrying at a time when the public system is under massive pressure, warns the senior doctors' union.
Auditor-General John Ryan has found Health NZ's plan - which was released last week, 18 months' overdue - had failed to show how it would deliver public health services, nor how much they would cost.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists principal policy advisor Virginia Mills said the fact there was no roadmap for delivering services, or even an estimate of "unmet need", was a damning indictment on the agency.
"Essentially it means he's [the Auditor-General] been unable to vouch for the plan. And that's quite concerning because we've got a health system that's under extreme pressure at the moment, and we're not confident that this plan is going to fix those issues or deliver on better health for New Zealanders," Mills said.
Of further concern was the fact that the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill, currently before Parliament, included a clause scrapping the requirement for the health plan to be scrutinised by the Auditor-General at all, she said.
"That would be like if you got a school report to say your child was struggling, and instead of helping your child to do better, you called the teacher and said you didn't want the report anymore," Mills said.
"It seems like the Government is saying, 'We didn't like this level of independent scrutiny. Let's get rid of that legislation'."
Mills said both those things were at odds with the Government's claim that it wanted greater transparency and accountability.
Health NZ blamed the delays in getting out the plan on its "immature" reporting systems, but said they were now bedding in.
However, Mills said it was also possible that the focus on cost-cutting (from then Commissioner now board chair Dr Lester Levy's "Reset Plan") had made future planning more difficult.
Red tape to blame, says Minister
In a written response to RNZ, Health Minister Simeon Brown blamed the delay in releasing the plan on the additional audit requirement for the New Zealand Health Plan, which was "imposed by the previous government".
"Removing it aligns Health New Zealand's planning processes with other crown agencies and allows the system to be more focused on delivering timely, quality healthcare care for patients," Brown said.
"As part of making the system more efficient and focused on patients, we are also removing bureaucratic processes and aligning Health New Zealand's planning documents with other public sector planning documents."
Health NZ would continue to have its annual financial statements and statement of performance audited by the Auditor-General, as required of all Crown entities under the Crown Entities Act.
His priority was "to ensure everyone can access timely, quality healthcare whenever they need it, regardless of who they are or where they live", Brown said in a statement.
"That's why, for the first time, we are putting health targets into law so every part of the system is focused on delivering faster care, shorter wait times, higher immunisation rates, and real results."
Those targets would be included in the Government Policy Statement on Health, to which the New Zealand Health Plan would give effect.
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