Statement of Intent 2006-2009

Table of contents:

From the Minister

Part 1: The Ministry of Health

Part 2: Environmental Scan and Strategic Direction

Part 3: Health Priorities for 2006/07-2008/09

Part 4: Developing and Maintaining Our Capability

Part 5: Statement of Responsibility

Footnotes


Publication Date: May 2006

ISSN: 1175-852X

HP 4259

You can read the Statement of Intent 2006-2009 online by using the left hand navigation or you can download the PDF

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Summary

In this, my last report as Director-General of Health, I would like to comment on three specific initiatives designed to improve Ministry capability and capacity. These initiatives are in contracting, health information and the systematic improvement of national systems. They reflect the results of substantial Ministry focus and work over previous years and are designed to enable the Ministry to deliver on its societal outcomes of Better health, Reduced inequalities, Better participation and independence and Trust and security.

Contracting
In recognition of the ongoing need to have secure and trust-based relationships with organisations that provide health and disability-related services to the Ministry and to New Zealanders, we have a programme of maintaining, updating and supporting our contracting policies, procedures and tools. In the 2006/07 year, this will include updating a range of templates, refining definitions associated with the process, implementing an automated contract management system across the Ministry, continuing the training and educating of our staff so that they understand how they can best comply with the policy, and enhancing data quality across its contract and financial systems. Both the Ministry and supplying organisations will be able to more effectively manage the delivery of services because they will have better information from which to do so, and this will enhance their ability to work together in the delivery of the Government’s goals.

We have already implemented a number of training programmes for staff involved in establishing and managing contracts. These programmes include an ‘introduction to contracting’ programme, a negotiation programme, and a contract-monitoring programme. Through our Contracting Support Office, in 2006/07 we will develop additional training programmes to complement the current core. These will include (among others) programmes on tendering processes and contract authoring programmes. These programmes reflect our commitment to the ongoing development of staff involved in this integral part of the Ministry’s business.Health information
In October 2001, the Working to Add Value through E-information (WAVE) report commissioned by me was published. The report was very broad in scope, looking at information and technology management issues for all District Health Boards (DHBs), and some 13,000 other provider organisations in the sector. It also considered more than 300 information systems and data sets. The report had a three- to five-year horizon.

In April 2005 the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General (OAG) considered that it was timely to look at what progress the Government, Ministry of Health, DHBs and the sector have made. The survey was three-and-a-half years into a programme that was expected to take five years, so was a snapshot of progress. A copy of this report may be downloaded from www.oag.govt.nz.

The OAG report acknowledges the strategic steps the Ministry has taken with the sector, culminating in the revised Health Information Strategy for New Zealand (HIS-NZ) published in August 2005, which has positioned the sector to move ahead with greater momentum.

HIS-NZ proposes that the sector focus information systems investments in 12 key areas, called action zones. While the action zones are not intended to preclude innovation or investment in other areas of health innovation, by targeting these areas across the sector we, in three to five years, should be able to see a number of advances. Community providers will be connected to a secure health information network. This will support more seamless care, enabling them to participate in information sharing and in accessing relevant data as it becomes available to the different initiatives.

All parts of the sector will be able to access relevant key event summaries online. Primary and secondary care providers will interact electronically around key events, discharges and chronic care/disease management.

There will be greater collaboration and sharing of information among hospitals, general practitioners, diagnostic service providers, pharmacies and other practitioners.

Interactions between secondary and primary care providers will be more uniform. Routine exchanges of information such as discharge summaries, referrals and admissions for services should be the norm.

At a national level, key information gaps in our existing collections will have been closed, particularly in regard to understanding:

• community, primary care and outpatient services; access to these data sets will be nationally enabled, supporting safe and high-quality care to consumers
• the implications of our health strategies from a policy, funding and research perspective; we need to be able to monitor progress and evaluate the outcomes of changes to our service configuration.

National systems
It is widely recognised that computer systems generally have an effective lifespan of about three to five years. Many of the national information and payment systems managed by the Ministry on behalf of the sector range in age from five to 15 years.

The Ministry now has many demands for improved and more extensive information to enable the strategies of the sector and the Government to be delivered and to provide the payment tools and data to the sector to enable service delivery.

The Ministry of Health’s response is to propose several years of systematic improvement to national systems, comprising several critical projects that will be managed within an overall programme called the National Systems Development Programme.

The above initiatives will position the Ministry well to enable it to maintain its high level of output directed to achieving ‘Healthy New Zealanders’.


Karen O Poutasi (Dr)
Director-General of Health

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