$12m fund to test new health treatments

The Government is delivering $12 million over four years to trial health innovations and new technologies that improve patient care.

The new innovation fund will be managed by a revamped National Health Committee (NHC) which will advise the Minister of Health on new diagnostic and treatment innovations that are cost effective and proven, and should be publicly funded.

The fund will support the trial, test or assessment of new technologies.

Health Minister Tony Ryall says, "For a long time, health innovations and improvements have been introduced in silos – where one DHB has offered new technologies and ways of doing things, others have never heard of them.

The National Health Committee will provide clear guidance on which new services should be funded for the benefit of patients throughout the public health service, instead of leaving it up to twenty individual DHBs.

Associate Professor Anne Kolbe was appointed chair of the NHC in April, and work is underway reconfiguring the committee, as recommended by the ministerial review group.