Health and Independence Report 2004

Health and Independence Report 2004
Director-General of Health’s annual report on the state of public health

ISBN 0-478-25784-4 (Book)
ISBN 0-478-25785-6 (Internet)

HP 4024

Date of publication: December 2004

When New Zealanders come into contact with the health and disability support system, they do so for a wide range of reasons. It may be for a health promotion programme encouraging physical activity, for a return to good health from a visit to a general practitioner or nurse practitioner, for an improved quality of life from public hospital surgery or for support to live as full and independent a life as possible. New Zealanders also want to be secure in the knowledge that these services will be available when they are needed.

These, often very personally felt, outcomes are just part of what we seek for all New Zealanders from the health and disability support system. We want these services to be delivered to the highest level of quality possible and using available resources most efficiently and effectively. We also wish to ensure the health and disability support system is working actively and alongside other sectors to address inequalities in health or independence between population groups. We want to prevent ill health, treat ill health early, help people manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma, and support people with disabilities to live independently.

The Health and Independence Report 2004 builds on previous reports, taking a closer look at the outcomes the health and disability support system is aiming to achieve. The report is required under section 3C of the Health Act 1956. The report draws together the guiding strategies, the funding, workforce and information infrastructure, and the different activities across the system to provide a detailed picture of how the system works to achieve better outcomes.

At the level of the health and disability support system, this year’s report explores how we are achieving goals of equity and access, quality, efficiency, effectiveness and intersectoral focus. The report also looks at the wider societal goals the health and disability support system aims to achieve, but which are also the outcomes of activities by other sectors and individuals: better health; reduced inequalities; trust and security; and better participation and independence. Throughout this report, Primary Health Organisations are highlighted as key for prevention and early treatment.

A notable innovation in this year’s report is the use of a limited range of interim ‘headline’ indicators, which have the potential to inform wider aspects of system performance. Readers are welcome to provide feedback on the indicators used in this report, or on the report’s content and direction. Your comments will inform the Ministry of Health’s work in 2005 to refine the system performance indicators.

Please send your comments to:

Health and Independence Report
Sector Policy Directorate
Ministry of Health
PO Box 5013
Wellington.

Document availability

You can read the full text of this publication below in Word or PDF formats.

Health and Independence Report 2004 (Word, 1.93 MB)

Health and Independence Report 2004 (PDF, 990.75 kB)

Warning - these files are very large and may take some time to download.

The PDF has also been broken into sections to make it easier to download:

Preliminaries (PDF, 212kB)

Part One - Introduction and Overview (PDF, 464kB)

Part Two - Healthy New Zealanders (PDF, 394kB)

Part Three - A Fair and Functional Health System (PDF, 482.88 MB)

Appendices (PDF, 2.36MB)

Appendix A (PDF, 190 kB)

Appendix B (PDF, 180kB)

Glossary and Abbreviations (PDF, 148kB)

References (PDF, 52kB)

Go to information about ordering and downloading publications