What are the overall quarter one 2012/13 Health Target
results?
Three significant Health Target changes have come into effect
this quarter: 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.
Nationally the results show three Health Targets have been met:
Improved access to elective surgery; Shorter waits for cancer
treatment and Increased immunisation. The Better help for
smokers to quit hospital target is also very close to being
achieved.
The Shorter stays in emergency department results decreased this
quarter due to increased pressure on services over the winter
months. Most DHBs improved their performance in the Better help for
smokers to quit primary care target, and the More heart and
diabetes check target, but no DHBs have yet met these targets.
How did each health target perform?
Shorter stays in emergency departments
National performance in the Shorter stays in emergency
departments target decreased by 2.2 percent to 91.5 percent this
quarter. This is consistent with quarter one results from the last
two years and reflects increased pressure on services over the
winter months. Results for the winter months have been improving
year on year. The current quarter one result is a 1.6 percent
increase on the result for the same period last year. This
means 5000 more people had an ED length of stay six hours or less
in quarter one 2012/13 compared with quarter one 2011/12.
Improved access to elective surgery
The Improved access to elective surgery target has been achieved
this quarter with 40,099 elective surgical discharges provided,
against a target of 38,097 discharges. This is 2002 (5 percent)
more than planned.
Shorter waits for cancer treatment
radiotherapy
Nationally 100 percent of patients, who were ready for
treatment, received their radiotherapy and chemotherapy within four
weeks of the decision to treat. This is an excellent result given
that chemotherapy wait times were included in the Shorter waits for
cancer treatment target for the first time in this quarter.
Increased immunisation
Eight-month national immunisation coverage is 87.1 percent and
thirteen DHBs achieved the target this quarter. This is an
excellent start for the new Increased immunisation target which is
to achieve coverage of 85 percent by June 2013.
Better help for smokers to quit
There was a small increase in performance for the Better help
for smokers to quit hospital target, with results improving by 0.1
percent to 93.7 percent, and nine DHBs achieved the target.
Performance for the primary care target was 39.5 percent. Although
no DHBs met primary care the target, 16 DHBs improved their
performance.
More heart and diabetes checks
The national quarter one result for the More heart and diabetes
check target is 52.2 percent, an increase of 3.4 percent on last
quarter. Eighteen DHBs have improved their performance, but no DHBs
have yet met the target of 75 percent.
Last updated:
August 13, 2015
