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

28 May 2013

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

The health targets results for the third quarter of 2012/13 have been released by the Ministry of Health.

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

This Quarter Taranaki DHB has improved in all six national health targets. Taranaki is top of all the DHBs for the More Heart and Diabetes Checks Target.

Nationally across all DHBs four Health Targets have been met:

Improved access to elective surgery target (106.3 percent)
Shorter waits for cancer treatment (99.9 percent)
Increased immunisation (88.9 percent)
Better help for smokers to quit hospital target (94.8 percent).

All other national Health Target results have improved compared with quarter two 2012/13.

Planning and Funding, and Population Health General Manger Sandra Boardman said a focus on the six key areas is important to continue to improve health, reduce inequalities and improve the quality of health services for Taranaki people. “The targets provide a useful indication of how we are doing”.

The health targets for Taranaki DHB are:

1) Shorter Stays in ED. Target 95%, Achieved 96%
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. We are very pleased to have achieved the target with 96% of patients seen in ED admitted or transferred from the ED within six hours. Nationally the target has continued the trend of increased performance this quarter, reaching 94%; the highest result yet.

2) Improved Access to Elective Surgery: Target 100%, Achieved 114%
Quarter three results for the elective surgery target show the national target has been achieved with 116,171elective surgical discharges provided, against a target of 109,293 discharges. Taranaki DHB is one of 15 DHBs to achieve this target and one of 10 to be 5% or more ahead of plan.

3) Shorter Waits for Cancer Treatment: Target 100%, Achieved 100%
Nationally, 99.9 percent of patients, who were ready-for-treatment, received their radiotherapy and chemotherapy within four weeks of the decision to treat. We plan to continue this strong performance and our collaborative relationship with MidCentral DHB to maintain the 100% cancer waiting time target.

4) Increased Immunisation: Target 85%, Achieved 88%
Taranaki DHB was one of 17 DHBs to reach the target - 85 percent of eight-month olds are fully immunised. Increasing immunisation rates are a priority in order to reduce the incidence of preventable disease in our community. We are working closely with 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.

5) Better Help for Smokers to Quit (Hospital Target): Target 95%,Achieved 95%
This quarter, the hospital Better Help for Smokers to Quit target was 94.8 percent nationally. We are working hard to ensure patients and visitors to our hospitals are given advice about quitting and are pleased to have exceeded the target this quarter. This is important to us as Taranaki DHB grounds and buildings are now fully Smokefree/Auahi Kore.

Better Help for Smokers to Quit (Primary Care Target): Target 90%, Achieved 63%
National performance for the primary care target was 51 percent, an 8.4 percent improvement on quarter two with Taranaki achieving 63%, a 5% increase from last quarter.

6) More Heart and Diabetes Checks: Target 75%, Achieved 70%
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. We are pleased to see an increase of 3% this quarter, making Taranaki DHB one of the top three performers in this target and one of seven DHB within 10 percent of the target.
Diabetes and cardiovascular disease continue to be among the main causes of ill health in Taranaki.

Last updated: Wednesday, May 29, 2013