Media Releases

National Health Committee promoting debate on Primary Health Care in New Zealand

10 May 2001

The National Health Committee (NHC) is seeking to debate the provision of primary health care in New Zealand by discussing it in a number of forums around the country over coming months.

The first debate will take place at the weekly ‘grand round' at the Otago Medical School next Wednesday 16 May 2001, coinciding with the Committee's monthly meeting. The ‘grand round' is an established practice in teaching hospitals where different topics are chosen for discussion in an open forum. The title for next Wednesday's grand round debate is, ‘Shifting Funds from Secondary to Primary Care'.

The Committee is keen to promote debate in the health sector around the advice it gave the Minister of Health, Hon Annette King, in December 2000 calling for major changes to the funding and provision of primary health care to help improve health and reduce health inequalities in this country.

One of five recommendations in the NHC's December report, Improving Health for New Zealanders by Investing in Primary Care, calls for the Government to “preferentially invest” in primary health care over the next five years so that services are fully funded.

Next Wednesday's debate will be chaired by Professor John Campbell, Dean of the Otago School of Medicine and a member of the National Health Committee since 1996. The Committee's position will be responded to by Murray Tilyard, Professor of General Practice at the Otago School of Medicine and Chair of SouthLink Health IPA and Bill Adams, Chief Executive of Otago District Health Board.

The Committee has chosen Dunedin for its first forum because of the long-standing contribution Otago has made to the Committee with membership by Otago University Professors Peter Skegg and John Campbell, Andrew Moore from the University's Philosophy Department, Anne Bray of the Donald Beasley Institute, and Althea Page-Carruth, a podiatrist in Central Otago.

The National Health Committee is an independent advisory committee to the Minister of Health. Since 1992 the Committee has been providing successive Ministers of Health with advice on how to spend the money the Government puts into the public health system in ways that will get the best results for people while making the best use of available resources.

The Committee has considerably influenced the course of health policy/practice in New Zealand during the past 10 years through its advice on a wide range of health and disability issues including waiting times and booking systems; clinical priority assessment criteria (CPAC) to assess the clinical and social factors that decide the priority in which people get access to elective services; the social, cultural and economic determinants of health in New Zealand; immunisation; health care for older people; and most recently, primary health care.