ASMS - working for better health care in New Zealand

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) is the professional association
and union uniting doctors and dentists in New Zealand. read more

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Joint Agreement Between ASMS and IPAC

The Horn Report

The ASMS is pleased that the government has listened to advice from us and others on the health proposed by the Ministerial Review Group (Horn Report). The Horn Report recommended creating a new bureaucracy, the National Health Board, as a separate, less accountable crown entity, in addition to the Ministry of Health. This would have involved major restructuring, and risked increasing bureaucratic wastage and generating paralysis in decision-making. We supported the functions proposed for the National Health Board but not the recommended structure. Instead we recommended that the functions be allocated to a specific enhanced unit within the Ministry of Health. This is exactly what Health Minister has announced.

Click on the link to view the Parliamentary Briefings that have been sent on the Horn Report.

In Good Hands report

The ASMS welcomes Health Minister, Tony Ryall’s commitment requiring district health boards to transform their decision-making by introducing genuine clinical leadership, in the In Good Hands report recommending the introduction of comprehensive clinical leadership in DHBs. Mr Ryall has endorsed the report and expects DHBs to be guided by it in implementing clinical leadership. In Good Hands Minister of Health's media release