The performance of the public health system, particularly the performance of district health boards (DHBs), is important to all New Zealanders. Our collective good health is part of the social and economic well-being of New Zealand.
In 2012/13, the government spending on health (through Vote Health) was nearly $14 billion – 18% of the Government's total expenditure of $78.6 billion.
The health sector continues to focus on improving its financial performance, including reducing the deficits of DHBs. My Office has analysed financial data from the past seven years to better understand the financial health of public sector entities, and in this report I discuss what that analysis tells us about DHBs.
This report also describes the results of our 2012/13 audits of entities in the health sector and our recent performance audit work to assess the effectiveness of particular aspects of the public health system – in particular, regional services planning. The health and well-being of older people has also been a focus of work for my Office in recent years and I summarise this work and our findings. The work has included identifying where better government data about older people is needed.