Health & Disability Services Standards and Fertility Services Standard Review principles

The Health & Disability Services Standards and the Fertility Services Standards are designed as the minimum requirements necessary to present fair and equitable health and disability support services that aim to improve the experience and outcomes of people and whānau and reduce care variation. The standards are mandatory for those services that are subject to the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001.

These five principles have been developed to guide the Working Groups who are revising the standards. These principles are designed to help inform discussions and debate when considering changes to the standards and reach consensus which align with the principles.

Principles

  1. Achieving Māori health equity
  2. Accessible health and disability services
  3. Partners with choice and control
  4. Best practice through collaboration
  5. Standards that increase positive life outcomes

Principle 1: Achieving Māori health equity

Statement of intent

Te Tiriti (Kāwanatanga, Tino Rangatiratanga, Ōritetanga) to underpin the review of the standards

Considerations

  • Support for Māori-led health and disability support services is important.
  • Set an expectation for culturally and clinically safe services.
  • Make reasonable efforts to consider the barriers to services that may contribute to inequitable health outcomes (eg stereotyping, discrimination, institutional racism, mobility, etc) and then how the standards can address and mitigate these barriers.
  • Ensure health and disability services enable people, tangata whāikaha and whānau to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services to make informed and appropriate decisions.
  • Ensure the collection of high quality data and information be used in quality improvement efforts to achieve health equity for Māori.

Principle 2: Accessible health and disability services

Statement of intent

People and whānau regardless of culture, gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, economic situation or geographic location, have timely and equitable access to appropriate health and disability support services.

Considerations

  • Access is complex and multifactorial and should consider, but not be limited to, availability, physical accessibility, relevance and effectiveness, cultural safety and removing racism and discrimination in all its forms.
  • Accessibility - and barriers to access - are to be considered in the context of the differing perspectives, health and wellbeing needs and cultural settings of diverse groups in New Zealand society.

Principle 3: Partners with choice and control

Statement of intent

People and whānau using health and disability services have their rights upheld to make choices about their care. Working alongside professionals (Better Together) improves service quality, safety, experience of care and equity of health and wellbeing outcomes. 'Nothing about us without us'.

Considerations

  • Standards are to be responsive to all people and whanau using health and disability services and tailored to meet different needs.
  • Appreciating that the value of health and disability services are reliant on better together partnerships between people who use the services and people who provide the services to achieve better life outcomes.

Principle 4: Best practice through collaboration

Statement of intent

Appropriate care includes understanding of the lived experiences and shared decision making with people and whānau.

Considerations

  • Collaboration achieves greater outcomes including more effective service delivery and systems development.
  • Service standards configured through collaboration are desirable supporting clinical sustainability and achieving equity.
  • Relevant evidence-based guidance includes people and whānau insights and is integrated throughout the services standards to support shared decision-making.

Principle 5: Standards that increase positive life outcomes

Statement of intent

The standards reflect the interaction between people and whānau, their health, wellbeing and disability support needs.

Considerations

  • A simplified and integrated approach to standards revision is adopted, with the primary focus on the outcomes people and whānau using health and disability services identify as important to them.
  • People and whānau have a right to seamless transitions between different health and disability services and the standards set expectations to achieve this, recognising the health and disability system is interconnected.
  • Outcome measures are based on areas that are identified as important to people and whānau receiving health and disability services.
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