Health reports

Mental health services for prisoners

March 2008: We conducted a performance audit that focused on the effectiveness of the agencies' systems for delivering mental health services to sentenced and remand prisoners...

Management of conflicts of interest in the three Auckland District Health Boards

November 2007: We looked at how conflicts of interest are dealt with in each of the three Auckland District Health Boards (the Auckland DHB, the Counties Manukau DHB, and the Waitemata DHB)...

Ministry of Health and district health boards: Effectiveness of the "Get Checked" diabetes programme

June 2007: In order to make the programme more effective, improvements need to be made to the quality of programme data and how the data is used. Better use can be made of the data to inform the provision of diabetes care at primary and secondary care levels...

Allocation of the 2002-05 Health Funding Package

October 2006: We undertook this audit to provide Parliament with a better understanding of where the Health Funding Package had been allocated between 2002 and 2005. The Ministry of Health had good documentation to support decisions on allocating the package. However, it is not possible to say from this audit how the Health Funding Package was ultimately spent, because district health boards, and many Ministry directorates, did not keep separate records of Health Funding Package funds...

Progress with priorities for health information management and information technology

March 2006: In 2001, the WAVE Report brought together the health sector's recommendations for making more effective use of health information. The WAVE Report envisaged rapid change in 3 to 5 years. We looked at the progress made by the Ministry of Health, District Health Boards, and the health sector...

Inquiry into the Ministry of Health's contracting with Allen and Clarke Policy and Regulatory Specialists Limited

December 2005: The findings in this report are a reminder that public entities need to manage contracting for services to ensure two outcomes. The first is that they are receiving value for money. The second is that the risks of actual or perceived impropriety, especially those associated with concurrent or former employment with the entity, are managed in a transparent way...

Pharmaceutical Management Agency: Changes to the frequency of medicine dispensing

May 2005: In October 2003, Pharmac changed the rules for dispensing medicines. It let doctors prescribe that a 90-day supply of certain medicines be dispensed all at once, rather than spread over 3 visits to the pharmacist. Pharmac projected that this could reduce district health boards’ spending on the dispensing fees paid to pharmacists by $132 million over 5 years. We decided to audit this because of the large savings projected, and the effects of the change on patients, doctors, and pharmacists...

Accident Compensation Corporation: Case Management of Rehabilitation and Compensation

April 2004: The organisation is performing better now than it has in the past. Overall, we found no systemic failings in ACC’s case management practices. However, our audit identified areas where improvements can be made for the benefit of both ACC and claimants...

Ministry of Health: What further progress has been made to implement the Recommendations of the Cervical Screening Inquiry?

December 2003: The Committee of Inquiry’s report, released in April 2001, made 46 recommendations for future action to improve the Programme. In this follow-up review, we found that progress is continuing to be made in implementing the recommendations...

Management of Hospital-acquired Infection

June 2003: The idea of patients acquiring an infection as a result of treatment they receive strikes at the core of the health system. The Ministry of Health and DHB staff have acknowledged our audit as providing a baseline from which to improve infection control practices...

Purchasing Primary Health Care Provided in General Practice

March 2002: Few of us know the complicated funding and purchasing arrangements that underpin primary health care consultations and how the arrangements have developed - particularly over the last 10 years. This report provides explanation and analysis of what the arrangements look like now...

Ministry of Health: Progress in Implementing the Recommendations of the Cervical Screening Inquiry

February 2002: The Ministerial Inquiry into the under-reporting of cervical smear abnormalities in the Gisborne Region raised some serious concerns about whether the National Cervical Screening Programme is as effective as it could be. The Committee of Inquiry’s report, released in April 2001, made recommendations for future action to improve the Programme. We examined the progress made and the work remaining to be done to implement the Committee of Inquiry’s recommendations...

First report for 2000

March 2000.

Fourth report for 1999

October 1999.

Community care for people with mental illness

December 1993, ISBN 0 477 02842 X.

Report on the health reforms information programme

1993.

Department of Health: Administration of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

February 1992, ISBN 0 477 02830 6.

Department of Health: Safety and effectiveness of medicines

February 1992, ISBN 0 477 02829 2.

Area Health Boards: Effectiveness and efficiency of estate management

August 1991, ISBN 0 477 02821 7.

Management of public hospital surgical workloads

May 1989, ISBN 0-477-02810-1.