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Waikato Health Targets Improve
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EMBARGOED TILL 6AM FRIDAY 26 FEBRUARY
Waikato Health Targets Improve
Waikato
District Health Board showed significant improvement in two
of
the six second quarter health target results released
by the Ministry of
Health today (Friday 26
February).
Emergency departments at Waikato and Thames
hospitals had the biggest
improvement in the country up
from 67 per cent of patients in the first
quarter who
were admitted, discharged or transferred within six
hours,
to 79 per cent in the second quarter.
In the
increased immunisation target, Waikato DHB reached 80 per
cent
for under two-year-old immunisations; up from 74 per
cent in the first
quarter.
The national target is to
reach 85 per cent coverage of two-year-old
immunisations,
by July 2010.
So good is Waikato's improvement and
innovative approach to
immunisations that the ministry
champion Dr Pat Tuohy asked Waikato to
provide a
leadership role for a regional approach with
Midland
neighbours Lakes, Tairawhiti and Bay of Plenty,
who are all struggling
to get to 80 per cent
coverage.
Waikato DHB chief executive Craig Climo said the
DHB could do better in
the other four health
targets.
"We will do whatever we need to do to lift our
performance even
higher across all health targets. We did
it together as a team, let's
continue to improve," he
said.
Waikato provided an outstanding level of access to
elective surgery. It
was one of eight DHBs which
delivered over five percent more discharges
than their
target. The DHB planned to do 3600 elective operations in
the
quarter but did 3875. Mr Climo said the increased
capacity was due to
the great work by the surgical teams
with support from the rest of the
hospital.
In the
shorter waits for cancer treatment and radiotherapy,
Waikato
Regional Cancer Centre had three patients wait
for capacity reasons in
October, but regularly accepts
referrals from other centres such as
Auckland, where
there are capacity issues.
Six regional oncology
centres provide radiation oncology services. They
are in
Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington,
Christchurch
and Dunedin.
Better help for smoking
champion Dr Ashley Bloomfield urged Waikato to
make a
more concerted effort to help smokers to quit.
The health
target is that 80 per cent of hospitalised smokers
get
advice and help to quit by July 2010. Waikato's
performance was 40 per
cent.
"Given that we are already
into quarter three, there needs to be a
concerted effort
now to make the required improvement in performance
in
quarters three and four," said Dr Bloomfield.
Mr
Climo said he wanted all health professionals to actively
record
smoking status and offer intervention.
"Choosing not to smoke is the single biggest lifestyle
choice our
patients can make."
Waikato achieved a
higher prevalence rate so is identifying
more
smokers.
Of the 12,888 patients in Waikato DHB
hospitals in the quarter, 2235
were smokers. Of these
smokers, 882 had the offer of an
intervention.
ends
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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