Govt Still Ignoring Poor A&E Performance

Judith Collins MP National Party Health Spokeswoman

18 January 2005

Govt Still Ignoring Poor A&E Performance

The Government is still doing little to improve the performance of its consistently poor performing Accident and Emergency departments, says National Party Health spokeswoman Judith Collins.

She is releasing figures today from the latest Hospital Benchmark report, for the quarter ended September 30, 2004.

The report says that, 'sector performance has been well below the benchmark of treating 80% of patients within 10 minutes for the last three years. Head injury, severe trauma or chest pain are examples of conditions that would be classified as Triage 2, and these conditions have a high potential to deteriorate and require rapid intervention to achieve good outcomes'.

The report also says, 'the ACEM benchmarks are generally not being met for Triage categories 2 and 3 - in both cases only seven DHBs achieved the benchmarks'.

"The overall picture throughout the country's hospitals has not improved in the last quarter, and that's simply not good enough. And financially, the outlook is not much better," says Ms Collins.

The report says, 'the financial result for the sector for the September quarter was lower than for the seasonally comparable September 2003 result, a position that does not bode well for the year ahead'.

"There has been little change in performance among the DHBs that consistently miss the benchmark," says Ms Collins.

"The Government cannot afford to be idle when it comes to emergency health services. It knows its A&E departments are still seriously underperforming, yet it continues with its lax stance on health.

"Despite the extra $3 billion in taxpayers money being poured into the public health system, the most basic services are struggling to cope. Productivity is not being addressed and simply too much energy, money and time is spent on political correctness and pandering to ideology."

Ends

Benchmark targets:
Triage 1 - Seen immediately - 100%
Triage 2 - Within 10 mins - 80%
Triage 3 - Within 30 mins - 75%

Hospital Benchmark Report September 2004 results:

Capital and Coast - Triage 1: 99%, Triage 2: 64%, Triage 3: 49%.
Waikato - Triage 1: 96%, Triage 2: 46%, Triage 3: 38%.
Hawkes Bay - Triage 1: 94%, Triage 2: 62%, Triage 3: 48%.
Canterbury - Triage 1: 91%, Triage 2: 51%, Triage 3: 42%.
Bay of Plenty - Triage 1: 89%, Triage 2:46%, Triage 3: 39%.
Auckland - Triage 1: 100%, Triage 2: 34%, Triage 3: 39%.
MidCentral - Triage 1: 100%, Triage 2: 38%, Triage 3: 33%.
Northland Triage 1: 100%, Triage 2: 71%, Triage 3: 57%.
Taranaki: Triage 1: 100%, Triage 2: 71%, Triage 3: 68%.
Hutt Valley Triage 1: 100%, Triage 2: 73%, Triage 3: 43%.
Southland Triage 1: 100%, Triage 2: 76%, Triage 3: 65%.

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