invest more into and apply the results of health research

The government should commit to increasing its specific investment in health research from the current 0.8% of health care costs to at least 2.4% over the next ten years. Te Aka Whai Ora, Te Whata Ora and Manatu Hauora should also have commissioning and other processes in place to apply the results of health research so that health service delivery, programmes and policies are based on the best contemporary evidence 

About 13,000 per year are dying prematurely - a figure that has been increasing over time. This is and often overlooked key indicator of the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of New Zealand's health system. An effective system would see these figures decreasing so that more New Zealanders get to live well to a ripe old age. Currently about half of NZ's premature mortality is described as "amenable", which points to the historical  ineffectiveness of our health system, and the other half is non-amenable which points to the fact we haven't invested sufficiently in the health research which would identify treatments, cures and prevention strategies.

The idea is also important because it is supported by a majority of New Zealanders, as indicated by NZHR's Kantar 2022 Opinion Poll Report "health research system at crossroads" which can be read at https://nz4healthresearch.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NZHR-Report-2022-Online-final.pdf