NZ Doctor | 9 Feb 2010

Minister signals to public: IFHCs coming

Lucy Ratcliffe
Health minister Tony Ryall has sent a clear signal not only to the primary healthcare sector about the future of service configuration, but also to the public yesterday.

The front page of yesterday's New Zealand Herald spells out the minister's intentions with regards to IFHCs, possibly the first time this has been articulated in the mainstream media since the election.

Readers of New Zealand Doctor and others in the sector will be familiar with the minister's plans on IFHCs, but the public, by and large, will not.

IPAC chair Bev O'Keefe says this is significant because it means the minister wants action and for the public not to be too surprised about it.

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Super-clinics plan in big health shake-up

By Martin Johnston

NZ Herald| Monday Feb 8, 2010

Primary health services are about to undergo their biggest shake-up in nearly a decade, shifting some hospital services into the community and creating new super-clinics.

The kinds of services the integrated family health centres might offer are expected to include minor skin surgery, referral to diagnostic imaging and consultations with hospital specialists.

The shake-up is also likely to help meet Health Minister Tony Ryall's aim to halve the number of primary health organisations (PHOs), the contracting groups that now sit between district health boards and health providers such as GPs and nursing practices.

Mr Ryall has written to five health boards urging a reduction in the number of PHOs in their districts. Among them were Auckland DHB, which has five, and Waitemata with six.

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