The New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy (NZPHCS) was set up in 2001, associated with the DHB system. The Strategy established a network of Primary Health Organisations (PHOs), which are local structures who are to design and coordinate the delivery of primary health care (Centre for Health Services Research and Policy 2005).
PHOs are responsible for registering individuals, for which they receive funding and are then responsible for contracting providers as required by the registered individuals (Ashton and Cumming 2004). A triangular relationship exists between the PHOs, DHBs and Ministry of health, where funding flows from the Ministry, to the DHBs and on to the PHOs (Ministry of Health 2010).
The Ministry retains a evaluative role, undertaking a series of monitoring processes as part of its role in the implementation of the NZPHCS (Ministry of Health 2007). PHOs are governed by local boards, which are not elected, but rather made up from members of stakeholder groups. However, there is an emphasis on ensuring PHOs have a community voice within their governance and that genuine community participation is available (Ministry of Health 2007).
More detail, including the New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy, can be found in the Primary Health Care section on the Ministry of Health website.