Primary Health Care

Primary Health Organisations (PHOs)

PHOs are the local structures for delivering and co-ordinating primary health care services. PHOs bring together doctors, nurses and other health professionals (such as Maori health workers, health promotion workers, dieticians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists and midwives) in the community to serve the needs of their enrolled populations.

PHOs vary widely in size and structure and are not-for-profit. 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.

Page last updated: January 2007