Organisation
The District Health Boards are given a set of objectives by the Ministry of Health, but 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. DHBs provide funding to Primary Health Organisations (PHOs).
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. These appointments are largely to balance the board's expertise as deemed necessary. Voting for public-elected DHB board members occurs through the single transferable vote system, and elections take place at the same time as local body elections. The last elections being held on 9 October 2010, and the next elections are due on 12 October 2013.
Taranaki and Wairarapa District Health Boards maintain their own ambulance services, with St John and the Wellington Free Ambulance covering the rest of the country.
On May 1, 2010, the Otago and Southland DHBs were merged to form a new Southern DHB, with elected members coming from two constituencies, Otago and Southland, and the remainder, appointed members of the Minister of Health, with the change taking effect from the 2010 local body elections. From July 1, 2010, a unified Primary Health Organisation covers the entire new Southern DHB region with PHO Centres in Alexandra, Dunedin and Invercargill with the mandate of providing PHO resources and services, replacing the previous nine PHOs.
Read more about this topic: District Health Board
Famous quotes containing the word organisation:
“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation upon the natural organisation of the body.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)