Updated Health Delivery Plan

Health New Zealand has today published an update of its Health Delivery Plan for the 2025-26 year.

The plan was published in March 2025 and set out how the organisation would deliver on the expectations of the Minister of Health and complete the turnaround it started in July 2024 by July 2026.

“Health New Zealand has continued to make good progress over the past four months," Commissioner Lester Levy said.

“Quarter three Health Target milestone results were improved and encouraging and we have strong financial disciplines in action and are making headway to get back to having no financial deficit as planned during 2026-27,” Professor Levy said.

“We are also through the majority of change processes, have a new Board in transition and a confirmed Chief Executive, all of which will support our efforts to be a settled organisation by July 2026.

“In addition, we are funding more services for patients from our baseline.

“This includes funding for the Elective Boost initiative in February, which delivered the target 10,579 elective surgical cases by the end of June, and prioritising investment in primary care including enhanced capitation and access to Urgent Care and 24/7 digital services.”

The updated plan’s seven priorities for Health New Zealand for 2025-26 are:

1. New Zealanders have improved access to health services and waitlists are reduced
2. New Zealand health is protected and promoted
3. Quality and safety of health care in the centre of what we do
4. Stay within budget and improve value for money
5. Enable our people by strengthening the organisation, leadership and culture
6. Modernise the infrastructure we use to deliver health services
7. Develop new ways to deliver healthcare sustainably.