Corporate governance of public health services: Lessons from New Zealand for the State sector

Abstract

New Zealand public hospitals and related services were grouped into 23 Crown HealthEnterprises and registered as companies in 1993. Integral to this change was the introductionof corporate governance. New directors, largely from the business sector, were appointed togovern these organisations as efficient and effective businesses. This article presents the resultsof a survey of directors of New Zealand publicly-owned health provider organisations.Although directors thought they performed well in business systems development, theyacknowledged their shortcomings in meeting government expectations in respect to financialperformance and social responsibility. Changes in public health sector provider performanceindicators have resulted in a mixed report card for the sector six years after corporategovernance was instituted.