Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) has undertaken a benchmarking exercise in which its expenditure per capita in a range of service areas in 2009/10 and 2015/16 is compared with the equivalent national average expenditure for that financial year. The analysis has been standardised for age and sex, where readily available data exists to enable this.
The Sapere Research Group were asked to comment on this analysis, to draw out some insights and to offer some broad conclusions. Their approach followed a series of steps.
- They began by considering what a well-performing DHB funding function would look like, in terms of its resource allocation role and how its performance could be assessed.
- Sapere presents and summarises the results of the benchmarking exercise and offers a simple framework to help interpret those results and to draw out some key insights about Canterbury's performance.
- Finally, they draw on some wider evidence to take a closer look at two specific areas of variance from the benchmark. They look in detail at community-based services that have the potential to reduce demand elsewhere within the health system.
For any questions or for further information on this report please contact communications@cdhb.health.nz.