Health is treated throughout this section as an input, with little recognition that is also a significant outcome, to which income, social support, inclusion and exclusion, housing, power and participation all contribute. For this reason, we believe the strategy should be assessed for impact on health outcomes and on equity and from a human rights perspective. The draft strategy starts with a positive view of New Zealand’s health system, reflecting apparently high levels of New Zealanders self-reported sense of good health, access to services and satisfaction with care. We believe this is not entirely accurate and that New Zealand’s performance is mixed and we perform poorly in many areas including avoidable hospital admissions, re-admissions to hospital for mental health disorders and survival rates for some cancers. The OECD notes that NZ’s health spending has slowed significantly since 2009. The health strategy and intersecting strategies need to address high risk illnesses and chronic disabilities experienced by women as well as men by developing gender sensitive health interventions and include measures that enhance quality of life and support independence. Local government has an important and often inadequately recognised role in the health of New Zealanders – creating and maintaining healthy environments that are unpolluted, safe and which encourage physical and social activity. Therefore the strategy explicitly includes local government in the whole of government goals. We also believe that local government, NGOs and Consumer support organisations are inadequately recognised in the draft strategy and the role of the private sector is not clearly described. Challenges and opportunities The Strategy reflects a range of challenges and opportunities that are relevant to New Zealand’s health system. Some of these are outlined in I. Future Direction on pages 5–7. Are there any additional or different challenges or opportunities that should be part of the background for the Strategy?
Health is treated throughout this section as an input, with little recognition that is also a significant outcome, to which income, social support, inclusion and exclusion, housing, power and participation all contribute. For this reason, we believe the strategy should be assessed for impact on health outcomes and on equity and from a human rights perspective. The draft strategy starts with a positive view of New Zealand’s health system, reflecting apparently high levels of New Zealanders self-reported sense of good health, access to services and satisfaction with care. We believe this is not entirely accurate and that New Zealand’s performance is mixed and we perform poorly in many areas including avoidable hospital admissions, re-admissions to hospital for mental health disorders and survival rates for some cancers. The OECD notes that NZ’s health spending has slowed significantly since 2009. The health strategy and intersecting strategies need to address high risk illnesses and chronic disabilities experienced by women as well as men by developing gender sensitive health interventions and include measures that enhance quality of life and support independence. Local government has an important and often inadequately recognised role in the health of New Zealanders – creating and maintaining healthy environments that are unpolluted, safe and which encourage physical and social activity. Therefore the strategy explicitly includes local government in the whole of government goals. We also believe that local government, NGOs and Consumer support organisations are inadequately recognised in the draft strategy and the role of the private sector is not clearly described. Challenges and opportunities The Strategy reflects a range of challenges and opportunities that are relevant to New Zealand’s health system. Some of these are outlined in I. Future Direction on pages 5–7. Are there any additional or different challenges or opportunities that should be part of the background for the Strategy?