Requirements for District Health Boards (DHBs) to have to publish whether they meet targets means the Government will not monitor complex health issues, Labour says.

A spokesman for Health Minister Tony Ryall said the changes were about cutting unnecessary reporting, bureaucracy, duplication and administration. The information would be published in local newspapers.

But it did not mean DHBs would not report on complex issues, he said.

There had been 10 health targets for DHBs, reduced to six earlier this year.

The reporting by DHBs to the Ministry of Health on the targets was now being cut by a third.

Labour health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson said Mr Ryall had "declared his government was not going to engage in unnecessarily complex monitoring".

"Unfortunately the public health system has to engage in a range of issues from simple to complex," she said.

The Government would not measure the cost to the health system of a teenager with diabetes, an 80-year-old falling and breaking their hip, or someone with severe depression, she said.

Mr Ryall said Ms Dyson's claims were "nonsense".

"Talk to any nurse in a hospital and they will tell you we need less bureaucracy, and that is what I am doing.

"The important programmes are being monitored, measured and reported on," he said.

Announcing the changes yesterday, Mr Ryall said the new health targets reflected the "desire to simplify what was an unnecessarily complex monitoring and reporting system".

"Publishing the results is one way of engaging the public in how well their DHB is doing."

Of the six health targets, three focus on reducing patient waiting times in public hospitals: more elective surgery, faster cancer treatment and shorter waits in emergency departments (EDs).

The ED target aims to have 95 percent of patients admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours. Mr Ryall said the target was clinically established and made a difference to patient care.