Primary Health Care

Primary Health Organisations (PHOs)

Primary health organisations (PHOs) are funded by District Health Boards (DHBs) to provide essential primary health care services to those people who are enrolled with the PHO. PHOs bring together doctors, nurses and other health professionals (such as Māori health workers, health promotion workers, dieticians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists and midwives) in the community to serve the health needs of their enrolled populations.

PHOs vary widely in size and structure, are not-for-profit, and provide services either directly by employing staff or through provider members. The first PHOs were established in July 2002 and there are now 81 PHOs around the country. DHBs worked with local communities and provider organisations to establish PHOs in their regions.

The Minister of Health released a set of minimum requirements that guided the establishment of PHOs, and set out standards that PHOs must meet. This includes a requirement that PHOs will give communities, iwi and enrolled people the opportunity to have their say about the services PHOs provide.

PHOs get a set amount of funding from the government to subsidise a range of health services. The funding is based on the numbers and characteristics (eg. age, sex, ethnicity) of people enrolled with them. That funding pays for:

• Providing care and treatment when people are ill
• Helping people stay healthy
• Reaching out to those groups in their community who have poor health or who are missing out on primary health care.