Health NZ Board sacking highlights failure of centralisation-at-any-cost agenda

The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the sacking of the Health NZ Board who have failed to meet performance expectations but says the blame should also sit with the previous Government.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Centralising and restructuring the health system into a bureaucratic behemoth was never going to deliver its promised efficiencies. Instead, taxpayers have been left with deteriorating health services and eye-watering cost blowouts.

“It is clear the board has failed to perform, but ultimately the responsibility must sit with the Government who decided it was a good idea to restructure in the middle of a pandemic.

“The health reforms have cost households thousands of dollars each, but they are left with nothing to show for it. Today’s announcement is simply more evidence that Wellington-knows-best centralisation simply doesn’t work and that a decentralised model with choice and competition would not only deliver fa