On a hiding to nothing? Assessing the corporate governance of hospital andhealth services in New Zealand 1993-1998

In New Zealand the governance of public sector hospital and health services has changed significantly over the past decade. For most of the century ho spitals had been funded by central government grants but run by locally ele cted boards. In 1989 a reforming Labour government restructured health serv ices along managerialist lines, including changing governance structures so that some area health board members were government appointments, with the balance elected by the community. More market oriented reform under a new National government abolished this arrangement and introduced (1993) a corp orate approach to the management of hospitals and related services. The hos pitals were established as limited liability companies under the Companies Act. This was an explicitly corporate model and, although there was some mo dification of arrangements following the election of a more politically mod erate centre-right coalition government in 1996, the corporate model was la rgely retained. Although significant changes occurred again after the elect ion of a Labour government in 1999, the corporate governance experience in New Zealand health services is one from which lessons can, nevertheless, be learnt. This paper examines aspects of the performance and process of corp orate governance arrangements for public sector health services in New Zeal and, 1993-1998. Copyright,(C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.