Forthcoming from Canterbury University Press
One
System
How relationships based on trust and a shared purpose transformed Canterbury’s health system
How do you bring a fragmented health system together around the people it serves? In One System, David Meates and Carolyn Gullery share an inside account of Canterbury’s transformation - and reflect on what it takes to make lasting change.
“What if we designed the health system around people, not organisations?”
In 2007, Canterbury’s health system faced rising demand, limited resources and fragmented services. Meeting those pressures meant changing how people worked across hospitals, general practices and community services.
One System follows that work through progress, setbacks and crises, from the decisions made by leaders to the changes in everyday care.
Three strategic goals
One vision, held steady for more than a decade
Support people and whānau to stay well and take increased responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.
Develop primary care and community services so people are supported in a community setting, with a point of ongoing continuity.
Free up hospital-based specialist resources for episodic events, complex care and specialist advice to primary care.
What the system delivered
A decade of growth with fewer beds and shorter stays
population growth in Canterbury between 2008–09 and 2019–20
fall in total hospital bed days for people aged 15 and over across the same period
of hospital discharges occurring before midday as flow became a system discipline
Institute of Public Administration awards won in a single year, 2015 - a national first
Figures drawn from Chapter 13, Outcomes that drove a connected transformation, sourced from Vision 2020 outcomes reporting.
Foreword
Canterbury’s story has been told before, but this book is different, and valuable, because it offers a view from the inside on what it means to lead transformation.Professor Sir Chris HamFormer Chief Executive of The King’s Fund
For people leading change
For leaders, clinicians, policymakers and community partners whose work depends on people acting across organisational boundaries.
Advance praise
Praise and perspectives
The story of the 12-year transformation of Canterbury’s health system is of profound importance: its use of groundbreaking innovation processes, the centrality of a simple, powerful, inspiring and guiding vision, and a leadership that nurtures and fosters change. These are lessons for all leaders, not least for those who are searching for ways to respond to major crises and disruptions.
We need the whole system working for the whole system to work.
He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata.
The authors
Written by two of the people who led it
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