Our recommendations
Recommendation 1: We recommend that the Ministry of Health and district health boards work together to achieve good governance of capital investment, by ensuring that decision-makers can:
- get strategic advice at an early stage on capital projects; and
- get support at crucial decision points.
Recommendation 2: We recommend that the Ministry of Health and district health boards work together to improve the quality of data for planning and reporting, by exploring whether our overall findings on data quality apply to other information collected to inform decision-making.
Recommendation 3: We recommend that the Ministry of Health and district health boards work together to report on how they will improve the quality of data used for planning and reporting.
Recommendation 4: We recommend that the Ministry of Health refine the guidance on Faster Cancer Treatment indicators to remove ambiguity about the definitions.
Recommendation 5: We recommend that the Ministry of Health and district health boards discuss and agree how to apply the definitions of the Faster Cancer Treatment indicators consistently, so that indicators are comparable between district health boards.
Recommendation 6: We recommend that the Ministry of Health and district health boards work together to review, amend, and improve the timing and content of the Ministry's regional services planning guidance for district health boards so that the guidance is:
- provided within a time frame that enables regional services plans to inform other plans that district health boards need to prepare; and
- more in line with the intended effects of regional services planning.
Recommendation 7: We recommend that the Ministry of Health and district health boards work together to prepare an evaluation framework and use it to work out whether regional services planning is having the intended effects.