Funding process

How much money does the Bay of Plenty receive for health?

How is the money spent?

How do we decide which services to buy?

Who approves the purchase?

How much money does the Bay of Plenty receive for health?

The Government allocates money to each District Health Board based on characteristics of its population, for example the number of people who live in rural areas, have low income, or are from disadvantaged groups. Read more about Population Based Funding on the Ministry of Health website.

The Bay of Plenty receives approximately $477 million a year (excluding the money for direct contracts with external agencies such as ACC). This included additional funding in 2006-07 for managing our waiting lists appropriately. See page five of the Annual Report

How is the money spent?

The funds are split about evenly between public health services, and more than 300 non-government organisation health provider contracts.

You can find a list of hospital services purchased in 2006-07 on page seven of the Annual Report.

$750,000 was set aside for new ways of providing Primary and Community health. Read about the innovations fund on page ten of the Annual Report.

Prioritising our purchases

Te Teo Herenga Waka is the team that manages the process for selecting and contracting services to best address the needs and priorities agreed in the District Strategic Plan and Primary and Community and Secondary Health purchasing intents.

Portfolio managers are assigned to each of the priority areas:

  • Health of older people
  • Maori health
  • Children and youth
  • Mental Health
  • Chronic conditions; (including the Healthy Eating Health Action campaign)
  • Health equity
  • Primary Care.

They consider the level and mix of services based on information from the Health Needs Assessment, Programmes of Care, input from technical advisory groups and prioritisation tools including HEAT.

View a diagram of the prioritisation process

The same prioritisation process is applied for:

  • changes to services (redesign)
  • proposed new services (design)
  • contract reviews
  • contracts approaching expiry.

Portfolio managers present their analyses to the Funding Management Committee using a template of the prioritisation criteria.

Funding Management Committee

The Committee provides a forum for thorough analysis and debate about the prioritisation process, and for approving funding decisions.

The Committee makes recommendations that are approved by either the Chief Executive Officer or the Board.

The relevant portfolio managers issue a formal Request for Proposal for those services that are approved. Wherever possible, services are not ended unless an alternative providing equal or greater population health gain is available.

Appeal Process

Appeals are limited to ensuring that the documented prioritisation process has been followed.  The District Health Board reserves absolute discretion in funding decisions.