Reporting for the New Zealand health sector: a history of public or private interest?

Abstract

The New Zealand government boasts a long history of socialized medicine, a history which is marked by significant public support for healthcare institutions. This pattern has been broken recently by policies which radically alter the structure of hospital management, which reduce the real revenues provided to health institutions and which change the reporting mechanisms between hospital management and the public. This paper considers accountability aspects of New Zealand public health policies, with specific reference to the annual report, and adopts a political economic perspective to challenge government's claim that better accountability is achieved by the current restructuring. Falling within the review is material gathered from health legislation, published health policies, journal articles and news items. The conclusion reached is that the public report policy has historically followed and reflected aspects of health care management advocated by public policy of the time, but has de-emphasized discl...