Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Editorials

What can England’s NHS learn from Canterbury New Zealand?

BMJ 2013; 347 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6513 (Published 29 October 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6513

Rapid Response:

Re: What can England’s NHS learn from Canterbury New Zealand?

I moved from being a general practitioner to a medical administrator in the early 1980s and initiated some integrated hospital board funded, community-based services in Canterbury, New Zealand. I was disappointed to see them destroyed as a result of the competition introduced by the health reforms of early 1990s. I was delighted to see the integration that we tried to put in place has now been more fully implemented. Perhaps Nicholas Mays' work for the New Zealand Treasury promoted his interest in the development of effective policies.

Competing interests: No competing interests

19 November 2013
John Holmes
Public Health Physician
Semi-retired
Dunedin, New Zealand