Auckland District Health Board
Media Release
23 November 2009

ADHB exceeding, meeting and progressing towards six targets

Auckland District Health Board supports the publication of health targets released by the Ministry of Health today, says Chief Executive Garry Smith.

“This is one of many methods used by the DHB to measure performance and indicate where improvements are needed as part of our quality improvement focus,” said Mr Smith.

The targets, set by Health Minister Tony Ryall in July, places ADHB’s performance against other DHBs in the country.

Mr Smith says the results show ADHB has topped the elective surgery list. Other target areas of strength include the northern region’s service delivery for Cancer Treatment Radiotherapy managed through ADHB at 100%.

ADHB’s target toward increased immunisation comes in at 80% totalling the number of 2-year-olds fully immunised. The figure includes 77% of Maori and 83% of Pacific children. Mr Smith says ADHB is well on its way to achieving the annual target of 85% of all 2-year-olds fully immunised by the end of the financial year.

Mr Smith says a key hospital-wide focus area includes working towards shorter stays in Emergency Departments. The target area shows Auckland Adult ED and Starship Children’s ED statistics aggregated to deliver a 70% result.

“ADHB manages the largest volume of emergency cases in the country through a variety of emergency and acute facilities and is working towards compliance with the six-hour target but is realistic that it may take some time to fully deliver to 95%,” says Mr Smith.

“Dedicated teams are supporting the hospital-wide initiative toward the ED six-hour target and ADHB has seen a significant shift in performance during the first quarter. For example, in October Starship experienced days where 90% of its patients were meeting the 6-hour goal. Adult ED is also working hard having experienced its busiest months on record during September and October with 4053 and 4085 patients presenting to ED respectively,” he said.

Mr Smith says ADHB’s Better help for Smokers to Quit initiatives began in July this year and ranks 14th on the list at 13%.

“Since July, more than 500 nurses have attended education sessions on smoking cessation, the effects of smoking, nicotine dependence and treating patients with nicotine replacement therapy. A significant programme of ongoing training and auditing is in place to ensure all healthcare workers are trained by 30 June 2010.

“ADHB is committed to reducing the harm caused by smoking and supporting more Aucklanders to stop smoking and is confident it will considerably improve its performance on this target,” he said.

Meanwhile, ADHB’s progress toward Better Diabetes and Cardiovascular Services target is advancing. Mr Smith says this quarter’s aggregated result, which came in at 63%, provides a base to build on over the coming months.

“A key goal for ADHB is around reducing inequality. Diabetes and CVD disproportionately impact on our high needs and Maori and Pacific Peoples, but when the data is examined for these groups separately, ADHB is almost meeting, and in some cases passing, individual indicator targets.”

ENDS