Health Minister Shane Reti says he'll shift more health decision-making back to the regions.

But it's something that Ashburton’s Mayor believes is already happening.

District health boards were scrapped 18 months ago to form Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ, in a bid to end geographical differences in the care people were receiving.

Reti said the reforms went too far.

"There are some parts that need to be owned by the centre, absolutely, but we need to be very careful because what has happened here is we've lost local accountability.

“We've lost local decision making and it's all owned by the centre."

Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown believes that is already happening under the current model.

The council doesn’t do health, its role is advocacy, but what they have been involved in is setting up a locality, Brown said.

Localities are part of the shift to the Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand system, aimed at delivering place-based planning for health and wellbeing services.

“We have been working with other councils to set up a locality for Mid-South Canterbury,” Brown said.

Ashburton is working with the Timaru, Waimate, and Mackenzie councils and local runanga to form a locality.

“To do localities you had to have council on board, we have the four mayors on board, and our iwi Arowhenua are on board, all heading in the same direction all wanting the best services for everyone.”

Whether the locality model is to be retained is yet to be seen, but the work has progressed to a point where Brown thinks it will still work with what Reti is suggesting.

“If it’s not called a locality we can still progress with it as a region.

“I think they will work quite well and have local people making local decisions for health from the Rakaia River to the Waitaki River.”

Reti stopped short of saying he would reintroduce district health boards and Brown questioned if the DHB model was that localised anyway.

The Canterbury District Health Board was Christchurch-centric and rarely had elected members from Mid Canterbury, he said.

The council’s advocacy work is also looking at extending Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua’s Whanau Services into Mid Canterbury, which would happen under the locality system, Brown said.

By Jonathan Leask