Continuity amid Chaos

Edited by Robin Gauld

Since 1989 there have been four different structures for the New Zealand health sector. The country can now claim to have the ‘most restructured’ of any of the world’s health systems and has captured the attention of researchers and policy-makers worldwide as a result. Despite this interest, there has been limited commentary on the actual management, organization and delivery of services in the sector.

There is much to learn from this practical side of health card: the growth of ‘by-Māori, for-Māori’ service, the resurgence of midwives as leading maternity practitioners, the implementation of patient prioritisation schemes for surgery, and the move towards ‘global budget-holding’ for the funding of general practitioners. To review what has been happening and how providers have responded to the successive reforms, Robin Gauld has brought together this volume of essays by people managing and delivering health care.

The editor

Robin Gauld is Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, and Director of the Centre for Health Systems — that spans the School of Business and the Dunedin School of Medicine. His book The New Health Policy (Open University Press, 2009) was awarded first prize in the Health and Social Care category at the 2010 British Medical Association Medical Book Awards. Other recent books include Revolving Doors: New Zealand’s Health Reforms – the Continuing Saga (Institute of Policy Studies and Health Services Research Centre, 2009), The Age of Supported Independence co-authored with Beatrice Hale and Patrick Barrett (Springer, 2010), Health Care Systems in Asia and Europe co-edited with Christian Aspalter and Uchida Yasuo (Routledge, 2011), and Democratic Governance in Health, co-authored with Miriam Laugesen (Otago University Press, 2012).