Decentralisation, integration and accountability: perceptions of New Zealand's top health service managers

This paper reports on the findings of a representative survey of senior managers within New Zealand's health system. Respondents report most favourably upon the implementation of a new organisational structure, service management, which appears to have largely replaced the traditional division of health services into hospitals and community services. Service management, which is the decentralisation of decision making to integrated patient groupings, i.e. medicine, surgery, mental health, women's health, primary health care etc., appears to have been remarkably successful, in the view of the respondents, in achieving greater efficiencies, better quality care, better decision making about priorities and greater accountability of doctors. A majority of respondents consider that services have replaced hospitals as organisational entities. Significant progress is reported in the integration of hospital and community services, primary and secondary care, preventive and treatment services and of public, private and voluntary services through service management. The findings point to a new paradigm which may be of fundamental significance in the future organisation of health services.