Damning report on Labour’s PHO experiment

Labour’s Primary Health Organisation experiment has been shown to have serious flaws in a damning report released today, says National’s Health spokesman, Paul Hutchison.

The report says that smaller PHOs with fewer than 20,000 enrolees are ‘generally not delivering all required management services’.

“They are being substantially propped up by extra Government funds,” says Dr Hutchison.

“The Ministry of Health loses credibility when it talks about ‘small community-based PHOs’ making a valuable contribution to the implementation of the Primary Health Care Strategy.

“Every time I have asked a DHB whether they can identify any measurable improvement in the health of their population, they simply haven’t been able to answer.

“Health Minister Annette King has prescribed PHOs onto the New Zealand population, without any evidence that they work. She is now putting another $3 million into those smaller PHOs.

“Annette King must take stock of her PHO experiment, that started off treating the New Zealand public inequitably, and has now demonstrated that smaller PHOs are costing substantially more than larger PHOs.

“The report showed management service costs for large PHOs ranged from $4-6 per head, up to $28 per head for medium PHOs, and a staggering $38 per head for small PHOs,” says Dr Hutchison.

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