Statement from Health Minister Bill English, 3 February 1997

 "The coalition agreement sets out the broad principles under which this Government will be working, and some specific policy proposals that will be achieved."

"Two of the key principles for the Government are that hospitals will be non-profit organisations and that we will work to reduce the level of bureaucracy in health management."

"Plans for implementing the structural changes needed to put these principles into practice are being worked on now and the first announcements about how the transition process will be managed will be made in a few weeks. The transition will be managed bearing in mind that there are a lot of very positive things happening in the health sector and we need to build on what we have achieved in recent years. We are also aware of the risk to the sector of losing experienced people. Any changes made must not compromise the sector’s ability to deliver high quality health services."

"In the policy area, work is under way on achieving free doctor visits and prescriptions for children five years and under. This is a top priority for the Government and we hope to have this in place by the middle of the year."

"Details and budgets for some of the other proposals, in particular the development of Maori health providers and the community based family health teams, will need more work before being finalised. This is happening through the current Budget round."