PLANNING & FUNDING

Frequently Asked Questions

 
Q: How do I offer feedback, give suggestions for improvement or make a complaint?
A: The Canterbury DHB welcomes any suggestions for improvement about our staff and services that you may have.  Any feedback will help us improve on the services we provide to our patients. To give feedback to the DHB about any of its services, go to the  General Enquiries Form or to the Complaints Form.
Q: How do I go about getting funding and/or a contract?
A:

When seeking to fund new services, our policy is to undertake a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) process, which is a form of tendering. This normally involves advertising in the newspaper for interested parties to submit a proposal to provide those services, or in some cases it may involve sending out information and an application pack to health providers in the field of interest.

However in the case of an unsolicited request (ie when a potential or existing provider of health and disability services approaches the DHB outside of an RFP process), the steps to follow are:

  1. The applicant should provide us with a written submission which includes detailed information about their services, including:
    • a description of the applicant, including their experience as a provider of health and/or disability services;
    • details of how these services meet Canterbury DHB priorities;
    • current an/or future service utilisation statistics;
    • age group, gender and ethnicity of the target population;
    • other government agency funds received; and
    • the amount of funding requested.
  2. This application is then reviewed by the appropriate Service Development Manager, and is discussed with the Team Leaders, and Service Development.
  3. The Team Leaders and Service Development will then make a decision on the application, and the DHB will communicate that decision to the applicant. The decision will be based on a variety of criteria, including the priority of the service the funding is being applied for, current levels of similar services already being funded, funding available etc.
  4. If the application is successful, a letter of offer will be sent to the successful applicant.

It should be noted that the Canterbury DHB has very limited discretionary funding under the new Population Based Funding allocation of health budgets to DHBs, it is unlikely that we will be able to approve many unsolicited requests for funding in the foreseeable future.
Q: What is Population Based Funding?
A: Population Based Funding (PBF) is the model under which DHB's are funded by the Ministry of Health.  It involves using a formula in an attempt to allocate each DHB a fair share of the available health resources so that each Board has an equal opportunity to meet the health and disability needs of the population.  The expectation is that the DHB will maintain financial viability and achieve a breakeven position
Q: What is Stat Dispensing?
A: Stat dispensing is the full supply of the medicine/drugs for a prescription, for up to three months at a time, rather than dispensing just one month's initial supply, followed by (up to) two monthly repeats.
Q: What are Primary Health Organisations (PHOs)?
A:

Since 2002 major changes have been made to the way primary health care is funded and delivered in New Zealand.  As part of the Ministry's national Primary Care Strategy, PHOs have been created to help deliver primary care serviced to the communities.  PHOs are the local structure for delivering and co-ordinating primary health care services.  PHOs bring together doctors, nurses and other health professionals (such as Maori health workers, health promotion workers, dieticians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists and midwives) in the community to serve the needs of the enrolled populations.

PHOs vary widely in size and structure and are not-for-profit.  The first PHOs were established in july 2002 and there are now 81 PHOs around the country.  DHBs worked with local communities and provider organisations to establish PHOs in their regions.  There are five PHOs in the Canterbury region.

Go to the Ministry of Health's website for further information around PHOs