About Capital & Coast District Health Board

Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) receives funding to improve, promote and protect the health of around 300,000 people in:

• Wellington City and its suburbs
• Porirua
• parts of the Kapiti Coast such as Waikanae.

We are also the leading provider of a number of specialist services, including neurosurgery, oncology, neonatal intensive care, and specialised mental health services, for the upper South and lower North Islands, a population of about 900,000 people.

CCDHB has the equivalent of around 4,300 full time staff, making us a major employer in the Wellington region.

Our district health board is the sixth largest in New Zealand and has an annual budget of more than $1 billion, which we use to deliver health services directly and to contract external providers, such as general practices, rest homes and pharmacists, to provide care.

CCDHB has two distinct roles:

• Hospital and Health Services (HHS) provides secondary services via the hospital and community outreach programmes.
• The Strategy, Innovation and Performance team's role is to assess the health needs of the people of the district and contract the most appropriate services to meet those needs.

Medical, surgical, mental health, community and clinical support services are managed and delivered as 16 clinical practice areas, organised into five groups.

CCDHB operates two hospitals – Wellington Regional Hospital in Newtown and Kenepuru Hospital in Porirua – as well as the Kapiti Health Centre at Paraparaumu.

We also operate Te Korowai-Whāriki, a large mental health campus based at Porirua.

CCDHB provides a range of community-based services including district nursing, rehabilitation services, social work, alcohol and drug services, and home support services.

CCDHB has a close relationship with the University of Otago Wellington School of Medicine, adjacent to Wellington Regional Hospital. Specialist medical staff are employed jointly by the university and CCDHB, ensuring a high quality education and training environment. Also co-located with Wellington Regional Hospital is the Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) Graduate School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health. Our new graduate nurses undertake postgraduate education at VUW as part of their Nurse Entry to Practice Programme. Mental health nurses in their first year of practice programme study at Whitireia New Zealand.

In addition many staff undertake postgraduate studies with our local tertiary education providers, which is important for practice development. These include Massey University, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Otago Wellington School of Medicine and Whitireia New Zealand.

CCDHB also maintains close links with polytechnics and other tertiary institutions for student training of nurses, midwives, medical radiation technologists, dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and pharmacists.

 

CCDHB supports research that is subject to assessment and scrutiny by an independent ethics committee. We work with the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, which is based at our Wellington location. We also have a 14-bed Clinical Trials Unit, where patients and volunteers can participate in medical research programmes run according to robust trial protocols.

Our District Health Board (DHB) is one of 20 DHBs established under the New Zealand Health and Disability Act 2000. DHBs are required to plan and deliver services regionally, as well as in their own individual areas. DHB objectives include:

• Improving, promoting and protecting the health of people and communities
• Promoting the integration of health services, especially primary and secondary care services
• Seeking the optimum arrangement for the most effective and efficient delivery of health services in order to meet local, regional, and national needs
• Promoting effective care or support of those in need of personal health services or disability support
• Promoting the inclusion and participation in society and the independence of people with disabilities
• Reducing – with a view toward elimination of – health and outcome disparities for Māori and between other populations groups.

Read more about DHBs on the Ministry of Health’s website.