Partnership Health Canterbury Te Kei o Te Waka strives to improve the health of all its enrolled communities in Canterbury by supporting the delivery of high quality primary health care, promoting good health to stop people getting ill and working hard to ensure everyone is accessing primary health care when they need it.

Launched in April 2004, Partnership Health Canterbury – Te Kei o Te Waka, is the largest PHO in New Zealand.  We are a not for profit organisation.  We work with and for our community to coordinate the delivery of primary health care to over 365,000 people in and around Christchurch.

Working with Pegasus Health, GPs and other community based health providers we take a holistic approach to the primary care services available to our community.

Apart from the great services available from your GP, we work to promote health and wellbeing and encourage projects and initiatives that make a positive difference to the health and life of people who are part of the PHO.

Among the365,000 people enrolled with Partnership Health Canterbury, our community includes more than 21,300 Maori, 18,300 Asian and 7,600 Pacific people. Partnership Health Canterbury works in partnership with its communities and more than 100 General Practices and other health centres to improve the health and well-being of the enrolled population.

PHO core functions :

• Delivering vital primary healthcare services via general practice
• Reducing the level of preventable illness
• Improving access to healthcare
• Providing extra assistance to those with high health needs

PHO Vision

• To strive to implement the vision and key directions of the Primary Healthcare Strategy, within the resources available
• To deliver, within the resources available, the best possible co-ordinated primary healthcare services, both on an individual and a population basis, to the individual, their whanau/family and the communities we serve
• To honour the Treaty of Waitangi partnership in health
• To work actively to reduce inequalities in primary healthcare access and delivery
• To set realistic, achievable goals and strive to surpass them
• To be accountable for what we do

PHOs are supporting a more proactive approach to keeping New Zealanders healthy rather than simply reacting with treatment when they are ill. PHOs are charged with tackling the big issues of health such as lifestyle diseases and chronic on-going illness.