title: What counts as a health service? Weight loss companies through the looking glass of New Zealand's Code of Patients' Rights.
abstract: In New Zealand, the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer's Rights is a key innovative piece of legislation for the protection of health and disability service users. It provides rights to consumers and imposes duties on the providers of such services, complemented by a cost-free statutory complaints process for the resolution of breakdowns in the relationship between the two. The Code has a potentially liberal application and is theoretically capable of applying to all manner of services through the generalised definitions of the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994 (NZ). As the facilitator of the Code, the Health and Disability Commissioner has a correspondingly wide discretion in determining whether to further investigate complaints of Code breaches. This article considers the extent to which the Code's apparent breadth of application could incorporate commercial weight loss companies as providers and the likelihood of the Commissioner using the discretion to investigate complaints against such companies.
authors.affiliation: University of Otago, New Zealand. megjay_neill@msn.com
authors.forename: Megan J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Neill
mesh_terms: D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D028701:Patient Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D061217:Weight Reduction Programs / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*