This year’s BNZ Healthcare Sector Insights Report reveals a sector that’s changing shape. Despite ongoing pressure, almost half of New Zealand’s healthcare providers (47%) reported that they are reshaping their businesses through process improvements, and a further 25% that they are making more fundamental changes.  This is good news as it suggests that businesses are taking action to build the scalable, sustainable healthcare solutions New Zealand needs. 

If your healthcare business is reshaping, or you’re ready to get started, here are six practical ways to turn the key insights from this year’s report into action:

1. Bring in the right advice before you start. In the report, Liz Rowe, Special Counsel at MinterEllisonRuddWatts, highlights how her experience advising in aged care and retirement villages points to a common theme: the main barrier to making a significant transition is knowing where to start. This is especially true when technology is involved. Bringing in professional advice early, not just at the compliance stage, helps providers put good governance and procurement in place from day one, and get past the ‘analysis paralysis’ that can stall so many good ideas.

2. Look beyond New Zealand for proven models. 74% of patients told us they expect healthcare providers to look overseas for new ideas, technology, or models of care. In our latest report, we share the story of SmartCare Group in Australia, delivering fast, affordable diagnostics and urgent care outside the traditional hospital system*. Other countries are often further ahead in the same demographic shift New Zealand is facing, and are often also ahead on the technology adoption curve, so you don’t have to work it out from scratch.

3. Build security and governance in alongside any new technology. As adoption grows, so does the need for the right guardrails. Our report shows technology adoption in healthcare is still largely administrative, but the role of security and governance is only going to grow as the regulatory environment for AI in healthcare develops. The Government’s proposed Medical Products Bill is expected to pass at the end of 2027**, which would introduce a framework to regulate software-as-a-medical-device, including artificial intelligence, for therapeutic purposes in New Zealand.

4. Line up funding options before you need them. Increasing operational costs is already one of the top pressures providers told us they're facing today (52%), and it's unlikely to ease as demand and complexity keep building. Different ways of funding a sustainability or growth transition, whether that’s a business loan, asset finance, or private capital, come with very different lead times. If you explore your options early, well before the need becomes urgent, you are best placed to manage changes on your timeline. 

5. Build the models of care that meet the demand coming your way. Aged care costs are projected to rise by almost 90% over the next 20 years***, and our survey shows ageing demand and rising complexity are the two pressures that patients and providers expect to shape the sector most. The providers positioning themselves for these key shifts now, through new operating models, technology, or partnerships that share the load, are likely to be the future sector leaders.

6. Look for opportunities to collaborate. 63% of healthcare executives surveyed internationally by Deloitte expect strategic partnerships and joint ventures to become a higher priority this year****. In my observation, the providers making the most progress are rarely going it alone. That might mean collaborating with peers, an industry association, another sector entirely, or a banking partner with reach across all of them. Connecting our healthcare customers with the right collaborators, whether that’s a specialist adviser or a technology developer, is something we see as core to our role.

Taking action

None of these steps require a healthcare business to solve everything at once, or solve it alone (see points 1 and 6). Your business will be on its own journey, but overall healthcare businesses share a lot of common ground, so there’s plenty of transferable intelligence to share. At BNZ, we’ve worked with hundreds of leading providers, and we’re more than happy to talk about what we have observed, learned, and how that can be applied to your business. 

If you’d like to talk through what any of this means for you, I’d encourage you to reach out to your local BNZ healthcare banking specialist, or get in touch with me directly. I also invite you to read the BNZ Healthcare Sector Insights Report in full.