Commission asked to authorise RHA tendering process
Published03 Feb 1997
The Central Regional Health Authority, on behalf of all four Regional Health Authorities (RHAs), has sought authorisation from the Commerce Commission for a tender process to decide which organisations would provide liver transplant services.
The Southern RHA would run the process and successful tenderers would provide liver transplant services for all four RHAs for the next three years.
Commission Chairman Dr Alan Bollard said that an authorisation would give the RHAs legal protection against an unsuccessful tenderer, or anyone else, taking court action against the tender process under the Commerce Act.
In July 1994 the exemption the health sector had from the Act was lifted and the Government required health organisations to be treated in the same way as other businesses. This means that if someone thought a health organisation had behaved anti-competitively and breached the Commerce Act, then they could take court action against the organisation.
Last year the RHAs obtained independent legal advice about their tender process for liver transplants, and then decided to delay the process and apply for an authorisation.
Under the Act the Commission is required to compare the public benefits of the proposal against its detriments to competition. If benefits outweigh detriments, it will grant the authorisation. If detriments outweigh benefits, then it cannot.
The Act sets out the procedure the Commission will follow.
The Commission will issue public notices asking interested parties to register their interest.
It will investigate the application, carrying out interviews and research as necessary, and will then publish a draft determination giving its preliminary view that, based on information currently available, it would or would not authorise the proposal.
The draft determination will give the RHAs and interested parties a clear indication of how the Commission sees the issues and where it wants further information. They can then make submissions on the draft determination.
There is also provision for a conference to be held if necessary.
The Commission will pull together the information from its investigation, the submissions it receives and from the conference to make its final decision.
The entire process will take up to 60 working days.
A timetable giving the dates for authorisation procedure will be published as soon as possible.
