Taranaki District Health Board Health Targets 2012-2013 - First Quarter

27 November 2012

The first quarter health targets of 2012-2013 have been released by the Ministry of Health. 
Ministry of Health - Health Targets website

The Taranaki health sector continues to work towards the targets, which are indicative of a wider range of services and efforts in priority areas.

“We are committed to working towards achieving the targets, and recognise there are areas for improvement,” Planning and Funding, and Population Health General Manger Sandra Boardman says.

She says a focus on the six key areas is important to continue to improve health, reduce inequalities and improve the quality of health services for local people. “The targets provide a useful indication of how we are doing.”

This Quarter there has been three changes to the targets. Chemotherapy wait times are included in the cancer target for the first time; the immunisation target changed from two-year olds to focus on eight-month old coverage; and the primary care tobacco results are included alongside the hospital results in the Health Target tables. As result of these changes no comparison is made to performance in previous quarters.

The health targets are:

The Health Targets are:

1) Shorter Stays in ED. Target 95%, Achieved 92%
The team continues to focus on improving the flow of patients in our acute pathway work. This has been an enormous effort by the Emergency Department and the whole hospital approach.
 While we are disappointed to be below the target of 95% of patients seen in ED admitted or transferred from the ED within six hours, we are pleased that we have achieved a 2% improvement from the last quarter.

2) Improved Access to Elective Surgery: Target 100%, Achieved 113%
Taranaki DHB is one of 16 DHBs to reach the target and one of 13 to be 5% ahead of plan.

3) Shorter Waits for Cancer Treatment: Target 100%, Achieved 100%
We plan to maintain our collaborative relationship with MidCentral DHB to maintain the 100% cancer waiting time target.

4) Increased Immunisation: Target 85%, Achieved 87%
Increasing immunisation rates are a priority in order to reduce the incidence of preventable disease in our community. The DHB is working closely with the PHOs, Hospital Services, outreach immunisation services, National Immunisation Register and Well Child Providers on strategies to improve immunisation uptake including early enrolment of newborns with a general practice. Taranaki DHB was one of 13 DHBs to reach the new target - 85 percent of eight-month olds are fully immunised.

5) Better Help for Smokers to Quit: Target 95%, Achieved 87%
A comprehensive hospital action plan has been developed to sustain and improve performance in this area. The DHB is working hard to ensure patients and visitors to our hospitals are given advice about quitting. This is important to us as we embark on a future of being a fully Smokefree/Auahi Kore site come February 2013. 

6) More Heart and Diabetes Checks: Target 75%, Achieved 63%
Taranaki DHB will continue to work with the PHOs in developing their Diabetes Care Improvement Packages and Long Term Conditions programmes to meet this new target. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease continue to be among the main causes of ill health in Taranaki.

Last updated: Tuesday, November 27, 2012