Media Release
08 April 2008
Health Decision-Making Bureaucratic Paradise
The area of service planning and new health intervention assessment has become a bureaucratic paradise and is ripe for
overhaul, says New Zealand First health spokesperson Barbara Stewart.
“Decision making has grown into a cumbersome, long-winded exercise which results in everybody having an input but
decision making deferred for years.
“At the bottom of the pile, as usual, are the patients who miss out on treatment the rest of the developed world takes
for granted.
“PET scanning is a prime example of bureaucratic dithering. The business case was put together by doctors but eventually
rejected by medical administrators – very few with any sort of medical qualifications and most of them watching the
financial bottom line.
“Anyone who doubts the need for streamlining should look at the Service Planning and New Health Intervention Assessment
– Framework for collaborative decision-making on the Ministry of Health’s website http:/www.moh.govt.nz – see attached (PDF).
“With a population of just over four million we obviously have total overkill in this area – time for the scalpel to be
wielded,” said Mrs Stewart.
ENDS