A leading health policy expert is highlighting the growing importance of how Aotearoa funds, organises and measures the performance of its health system, as pressure continues across primary and hospital care.
Professor Tim Tenbensel, Professor of Health Policy at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, specialises in the structure and performance of New Zealand’s health system, with a particular focus on primary healthcare.
His research examines how health policy moves from decisions made at government level into services experienced by patients and communities.
A key part of that work has focused on Primary Health Organisations, including how primary care is funded and organised and how policy settings affect the delivery of frontline services.
Tenbensel has also investigated the use of health targets and performance measures, looking at whether government initiatives translate into meaningful improvements across the health sector.
His work comes as New Zealand continues to confront major challenges around health funding, workforce capacity, access to primary care and the balance between public and private healthcare.
These pressures are particularly significant for Māori, with longstanding inequities in access, outcomes and the wider determinants of health remaining central issues for the health system.
Tenbensel’s research also explores the gap that can emerge between the intentions of health policy and what happens when those policies are implemented on the ground.
With demand for healthcare continuing to grow, the organisation and funding of primary care is expected to remain a major part of the debate over the future direction of New Zealand’s health system.
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