District health boards are being scrapped in a radical shake-up of the health system.

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Health Minister Andrew Little is announcing details to health leaders at Parliament this morning.

The 20 district health boards which run services for individual areas around the country will be replaced by one new body, Health NZ, which will instead plan services for the whole population.

There will also be a new Māori Health Authority, sitting alongside that, to both set policies for Māori health and to decide and fund those who will deliver services.

The country's 30 primary health organisations - large regional networks of GPs and primary care - will also be ditched.

And, on the back of Covid 19, there will be a new Public Health Agency which will target widespread health problems - like smoking - and try to prepare for pandemics and epidemics.

Little says today's announcement is a plan to create a "truly national health service" that "draws on the best that we have now" but reduces pressure on healthcare workers and hospitals and specialist services.

"By making the changes I am announcing today, we will have the chance to put the focus on primary health care.

"We can start giving true effect to tino rangatiratanga and our obligations under Te Tiriti O Waitangi."

"It's a system under stress. Our health and care workers strive every day ... but demand is growing ... and the job is getting harder."

The changes being announced go further than the Health and Disability System Review, the basis for today's plan.

That recommended halving the DHBs, and having a Māori health authority but with fewer powers and less autonomy that the one announced today.

The changes have been made to try to stop what's called the post code lottery of care, where people get different care - or have different changes of survival - depending on which DHB area they live in.

The report released today says a lot of those problems are caused by the fact that hospitals and specialist care are often managed in isolation from each other, not in a coherent network.

Instead of district health boards, the new Health NZ, will oversee the health needs of four regions.

And there is an increased focused on primary - or GP-level community care.

The report says at the moment specialist or hospital care draws away a lot of primary care funding and it wants that to stop.

It also wants those community services - including GPs, midwives and pharmacists, to work more together

And the Māori Health Authority is aimed at overcoming the huge health disparities for Māori as a whole, with lower life expectancy and higher rates of disease in many areas.

Regional public health units, long underfunded, will stay but under the new Health NZ entity.

Little says he's heard calls for change, quickly.

"The current system no longer serves our needs well. Our goal is a health system that helps all New Zealanders to live longer in good health."

"We need a system that is not only fairer but also smarter."

Smarter means making the most of the money and resources available, Little says.

He's not underestimating the challenges faced, he says.

"Our system has become overly complex. It is too complicated for a small nation."

"We need to operate as one system. Organisations working together should be the norm, not the exception."

The Ministry of Health will be strengthened, Little says.

But it will no longer directly fund and commission health services.

Health New Zealand - a new Crown entity - will run hospitals and commission primary health care.

It will replace the existing 20 health boards, Little says.

"DHBs have served their communities well."

But they have their failings, he says.

"I want to stress this reform is about doing better with what we have. It is not about cutting services," Little says.

Reporting by Radio New Zealand

Republished by Arrangement