Neurosurgery has been picked for a national service-improvement programme to establish standardised care and clinical guidelines.
National Health Board (NHB) member Dr Jeff Brown said significant resources had been allocated to the programme, which will also target cardiac surgery, paediatric oncology, paediatric gastroenterology and major trauma.
Dr Brown said national clinical guidelines, such as how long patients should wait for certain procedures, had not been established for neurosurgery before.
"These services will undergo nationally co-ordinated planning and performance-improvement activities, but will still be funded by DHBs."
The approach adopted by the South Island neurosurgery expert panel - which recommended neurosurgery be delivered in both Christchurch and Dunedin, backed with an academic component - provided a resource for the national improvement programme to draw upon.
The panel had been able to look at all levels of the health service - management, clinicians and patients - and take a broader view than the two DHBs, which had been unable to agree on where to site neurosurgery services.
Dr Brown said establishing national guidelines and a network of clinicians reduced the risk of neurosurgeons being isolated in their work.
The National Health Board also named five "vulnerable" services this week to become national services: clinical genetics, paediatric pathology, paediatric metabolic services, paediatric cardiology and paediatric cardiac surgery.
These services would be planned and funded nationally, rather than by individual DHBs.
The NHB has been set up by the Government to provide central planning of health, rather than DHBs working in isolation.
