Radical health reform proposed by Act

ONE NEWS: The Act Party wants to get rid of district health boards and put doctors and nurses in charge of hospital departments.

Act's deputy leader, Heather Roy, launched the party's health policy and says it has remedies for the poor governance and mis-management of the public health system.

"The public perception is that no one can fix health," Roy says.

"The common misconception is that pouring more money in is the only solution.

"When we accept that there is only so much taxpayers' money - and therefore rationing using public funds is inevitable - we can begin making some sensible decisions."

She says Act will inject a one-off payment of $500 million to clear hospital waiting lists.

Co-operation between public and private providers will be established for efficiency gains.

Hospitals will compete for delivering services by improving quality and lowering prices.

The Ministry of Health will be separated from day-to-day healthcare delivery. Its functions will be determined. "It isn't there to protect the health minister from an embarrassing situation."

DHBs will be disbanded and replaced with small, appointed committees to run local operations.

"DHBs are elected under phoney democratic processes," Roy says.

"In reality their job is to implement the government of the day's health policies. This farce of 21 DHBs replicating services nationwide needs to end."

There will be a return to the general medical subsidy, where doctors are paid a fee for service. Community cards will be used to determine the level of subsidy, which will be graduated depending on the cardholder's socio-economic status.