Canterbury DHB covers an area of the East Coast of the South Island from Kaikoura District in the north, to Ashburton District in the south, as well as the Chatham Islands. It is responsible for the health of an estimated 558,830 people.

Roughly 80 percent of this population lives in the Greater Christchurch area, with the rest dispersed over a large geographical area. Canterbury DHB is the second largest DHB in terms of population and area. It has the fastest-growing Māori population, and the sixth largest total Māori population. Around 10 percent of the DHB’s population is Asian, and this is its fastest-growing ethnic group. The DHB has the largest population aged over 75.

Canterbury DHB owns and operates five major hospital facilities in Christchurch and Ashburton, and almost 30 smaller rural hospitals and community bases around the region.

On top of providing health services to its own population, Canterbury DHB provides many specialised services to people referred from other DHBs where these services are not available.

West Coast relationship

Canterbury also provides many services for the population of the West Coast DHB. The two DHBs have several formal partnership agreements.

The Chief Executive of Canterbury DHB is also Chief Executive of West Coast DHB. Several managers and members of the Executive Management Team hold positions at both DHBs.