District health board

DHBs received public funding from the Ministry of Health on behalf of the Crown, based on a formula that took into account the total number, gender, age, socio-economic status and ethnic mix of their population.

[4][5] In 1938, the First Labour Government introduced the Social Security Act 1938 with the goal of creating a free public health system in New Zealand.

The Third National Government piloted a trial AHB health scheme in the Wellington and Northland regions.

Due to the success of the pilot scheme, the Government passed legislation establishing Area Health Boards in 1983.

[5] Following the 1984 election, the incoming Fourth Labour Government expanded the Area Health Board system.

These entities were led by board members who were elected for three year terms concurrent with the local council bodies.

[5][4] In 1991, the incoming Fourth National Government introduced legislation replacing the AHB board members with Government-appointed commissioners.

As part of the coalition governing arrangement, there was more emphasis on collaboration between health purchasers and providers while the HHS were reoriented to be less commercially focused with greater community input on hospital boards.

[2][3] The transition will occur over a three-year period with an interim Health New Zealand organisation being set up in late 2021.

[citation needed] Voting for public-elected DHB board members occurred at the same time as local-body elections.

[19] Health Boards were replaced by unelected commissioners in Hawke's Bay in 2009, Southern in 2015 and Waikato in 2019.

From 1 July 2010, a unified primary health organisation has covered 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.

[8] There were 20 DHBs, organised around geographical areas, of varying population sizes, though they were not coterminous with the Regions of New Zealand: