Public Hospitals
www.moh.govt.nz/publichospitals

This page provides information about public hospitals in New Zealand.

Public hospitals are run and owned by District Health Boards

Public hospitals are run and owned by District Health Boards (DHBs). DHBs are responsible for providing, or funding the provision of, health and disability services in their district.

Find out more about:

• DHBs, their role and how they are elected
• Population Based Funding

Hospital-based services
Public hospitals are set up to provide quality acute care and to ensure that as many people as possible have access to elective (non-acute) services.


Elective services
The elective services website shows how DHBs are managing the flow of patients seeking elective surgery (such as major joint replacement or cataract surgery).


What services do hospitals provide?
Hospitals currently provide a variety of publicly funded health and disability services such as medical, surgical, maternity, diagnostic and emergency services. The range of services offered by an individual hospital is affected both by the size of the local population and the services offered by other hospitals in the region.

Hospital services are provided on an inpatient, daycase and outpatient basis, depending on the type of care that a patient needs:

• inpatients are admitted to hospital and stay overnight in hospital,

• daycase patients are admitted to hospital and discharged later the same day,

• outpatients attend clinics where they receive specialist services without being admitted to hospital.

Find out more about:

• Publicly Funded Maternity Services in New Zealand
• Going to hospital in an emergency for sickness

Reporting on hospital performance
DHBs supply information on various aspects of hospital performance to the Ministry of Health every three months, which is used to compile the quarterly Hospital Benchmark Information report.

The report gives a comparable picture of DHB performance. The users of the report are advised to contact the DHB or DHBs concerned, before drawing conclusions from the report.

DHB Hospital Benchmark Information Reports


Hospital surgical activity
The hospital surgical activity webpage provides information on patients (acute and elective) receiving publicly funded surgical treatment.


Cancer Treatment
Some hospitals provide specialised treatment for cancer patients.

The cancer waiting times webpage measures the interval between the patient's referral from a medical practitioner to the oncology department and the beginning of radiation treatment.


Community-based services provided by DHBs
Hospital services are part of the activity of a DHB.

More information about the community-based services that DHBs provide can be found on the Primary Health Care section of this website.

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Page last updated: 6 December 2007